142 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
142 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
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This Article has been written to let some of you fellow pirates
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know just what is and isn't illegal in the area of 'Copyright
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Protection under the law.' This will hopefully expell some of the
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misconstrued ideas about software pirating. Due to the presence of
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constant revisions in this area of the law, this information
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probably won't remain current for a long period of time. The
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Courts (as usual) can't seem to make any sort of reasonable
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decisions about any controversial issue! This is probably due to
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the fact that they insist on ruling on subjects that they have
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little or no information about!!
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To Start with, here are a few relevant facts that most of you
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already know..But I will go through it anyhow, for the benefit of
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the ignorant.
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1: Unauthorized copying of software is illegal. Copyright law
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protects software authors & publishers, just as patent law protects
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inventors.
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2: Unauthorized copying of software by individuals can harm the
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entire academic comunity (for those of you in college!). If
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unauthorized copying proliferates on a campus, the institution may
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incur a legal liability. Also, the insitution may find it more
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difficult to negociate agreements that would make software more
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widely and less expensively available to members of the academic
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community.
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3: Unauthorized copying of software can deprive developers of a
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fair return for their work, increase prices, reduce the level of
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future support and enhancement, and inhibit the development of new
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software products. It has been claimed that if all software
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pirating stoped, prices would drop considerably. What a crock of
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shit. They would probably drop a little, but If people are willing
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to pay that much, wouldn't you be happy with all the extra $$$
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coming in!
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4: Some common questions about Pirating I have been asked:
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a: What do I need to know about software and the U.S. Copyright
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Act? Unless it has been placed in the public domain, software is
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protected by copyright law. The owner of a copyright holds
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exclusive right to reproduction and distribution of his or her
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work. Therefor, it is illegal to duplicate or distribute software
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or its documentation without the permission of the copyright owner.
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If you have purchased your copy, however, you may make a backup for
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you own use in case the original is destroyed or fails to work.
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b: Can I loan my software I have purchased myself? If your software
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came with a clearly visible license agreement, or if you signed a
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registration card, READ THE LICENSE CAREFULLY before you use the
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software. Some licenses may restrict use to a specific computer.
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Copyright law does not permit you to run your software on two or
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more computers simultaneously unless the license agreement
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specifically allows it. It may, however, be legal to loan your
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software to a friend temporarily as long as you don't keep a copy.
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(what a crock of shit! like I'm gonna go buy 2 copies of Windows to
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run on both computer I have set up..)
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c: If software is not copy-protected, do I have the right to copy
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it? Lack of copy-protection does NOT constitute permission to copy
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software in order to shar or sell it! Now this had to be one of
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the dumber questions asked of me...No Protection just makes it a
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little easier to either make backups or commit a crime!
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5: An alternatives to requiring use of the same program in bulk
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quantities is a site license. This is usually cheaper than buying
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many copies of the same software package.
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6: In finishing this section, restrictions on the use of software
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are far from uniform! You should check carefully each piece of
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software and the accompying documentation yourself. According to
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officials, you do not have the right to make unauthorized copies
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for or get copies from anyone when the Copyright Laws are in
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effect.
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Now, the legalities of this are a crock of shit! There is a
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little thing called the Infringing Act. For your convienience,
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I'll quote ut for you.
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"The Use of an Infringing Copy: Under the Copyright Act, copyright
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does not extend to limit the 'use' of a computer program in a
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computer. However, if this should extend even to cases where an
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infringing copy of a computer program is used in a computer, the
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result would be unjustifiably detrimental to the author's
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interests. In the case of works other than a program works, such
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use of the infringing copies usually accompanies acts which also
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make such copies available to the public by distribution. These
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acts are, then, deemed to be an infringement of the copyright. The
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use of an infringing copy of a program work is, however, usually
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not accompanies by acts which make it public. The Amended Act
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takes notice of this special feature of computer programs by
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declaring that the use for business purposes of a copy of a program
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work in a computer which was made by an act which infringed the
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copyright on said program work, shall be deemed to be an
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infringement of the copyright in the program work only when such a
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fact of infringement was known at the time of obtaining rights to
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use the copy. Ignorace of the fact of infringement is a defense!
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Now, for those of you yet to recieve your Law degree, this is
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saying that distribtion is DEFINITLY illegal..as most of you
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already knew....To recieve a copy of a program from someone
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else, use it for you own use, and not send it around is also
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illegal, BUT!!!! Only if you KNEW IT WAS ILLEGAL! This is one case
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where Ignorance of the Law is a defense...So for all you people
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with Gigabytes of software offline...This should make you feel
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somewhat better...
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The next thing to address is the Supreme Court Ruling on the LEGAL
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copies of Video Tapes in a persons home. A person can legally copy
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a video tape for his own personal private use. Video tape happenes
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to be in the same class of magnetic media that Software resides. A
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person could make one hell of an arguement about this very subject.
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After consulting with a few attourneys, they all said that the
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possibility of the FBI or ANYONE for that matter, breaking in to
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someones house is COMPLETLY FAR FETCHED! The Court systems just
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don't want to have to deal with all the 'rinky dink' cases of minor
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software pirating, especially when they don't have a firm
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supportive base for their case! The FBI man hours, the courts
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wasted time, and the small about of money they are dealing with
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equals up to the fact that people like you and me are basically in
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NO DANGER of getting busted. Many of the attourneys expect a
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ruling from the Supreme Courts specifically putting Software in the
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same class as Video Tapes.
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The Final thing I wish to address is the area of punishment. Even
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through the possibility is very low, IF a companiy chose to put the
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time into it, and IF a company chose to press charges on someone
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for distributing programs, and IF they had enough evidence to make
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a case, the penalties are as follows:
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Base level 6: For programs under $2000, a maximum punishment of 6
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months in Jail and up to a $25000 fine is plausable. The people I
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have consulted with have seen NO cases of which a person was
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prosecuted for 'having' programs in his possession, but anything is
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possible.
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Above level 6: Up to 5 years in Prison, and up to a $250,000 fine.
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The Penalties listed are on the bases of a EACH COPY OF A PROGRAM.
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Major ouch when I heard this one.
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Now, what this tells me and the attourneys I consulted with is
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that a sentence under one year is usually consituted as a
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non-felony charge. Not necessarily a misdemeanor, but definitly
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not a felony. To most people, this would be extremely good news.
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I personally am too old to go around with a felony on my record!
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This concludes my article and I hope it has cleared up a few things
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for you! And if not, It's just not my problem!!
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Cool Hand
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INC Vise President |