Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,misc.legal,comp.emacs Subject: Re: Free software and Usenet articles on CompuServe Message-ID: <2123@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 15:51:37 EDT Article-I.D.: cbmvax.2123 Posted: Wed Jul 15 15:51:37 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 01:33:16 EDT References: <1369@cullvax.UUCP> Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 33 Xref: mnetor comp.os.minix:1231 misc.legal:2153 comp.emacs:1428 in article <1369@cullvax.UUCP>, drw@cullvax.UUCP (Dale Worley) says: > Xref: cbmvax comp.os.minix:1225 misc.legal:2027 comp.emacs:1382 > > johnl@well.UUCP (John A. Limpert) writes: >> I find it hard to believe that they >> have any legal right to impose conditions on the redistribution of >> material that is in the public domain or copyrighted by third parties. Back when I had company-sponsored Compuserve access, the SYSOPs in the Amiga forum explained Compuserve's claim. It seems, at least according to these folks, that Compuserve claims a group or collection copyright. Kind of like when Issac Asimov put together a group of short stories in a single book. He doesn't usurp the individual copyright of each story (though he could have an exclusive distribution agreement with some or all of the authors; Compuserve seems to have a few of these too), but if anyone tried to distribute a book with the same collection of short stories, he would have legal grounds to claim a violation of copyright. Similarly, Compuserve can't prohibit the further distribution of a copyrighted program. For instance, DiskSalv 1.0 (an Amiga program that I wrote) is available on Compuserve, even though it is copyrighted by ME. Compuserve can't claim any ownership of this program (at least I hope they don't, I don't believe that they'd have a legal leg to stand on if they did), but if a rival computer network were to download all of the AmigaForum's utilities library, including DiskSalv, and upload it to their equivalent data library, they would claim a copyright infringement. To my knowledge, this had never been legally tested. It could be very hard to prove that an entire program collection of freely redistributable programs was lifted in whole, since most likely every one of the programs is also available from a separate source. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh "The A2000 Guy" PLINK : D-DAVE H BIX : hazy "Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world" -Beach Boys