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Softpanorama |
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
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See also Professor Samuelson Page
From
Open Source
Vol. 2, No. 3 - May 2004
The Open Source Definition umbrella approach that despite absence of any real innovations was a tremendous PR success in 1990-2000 effectively replacing the term of free software advocated by FSF.
CyberSpace Law Lessons -- an excellent tutorial
koobera.math.uic.edu -- In the United States, once you own a copy of a program, you can back it up, compile it, run it, and even modify it as necessary, without permission from the copyright holder. See 17 USC 117 According to the CONTU Final Report, which is generally interpreted by the courts as legislative history, ``the right to add features to the program that were not present at the time of rightful acquisition'' falls within the owner's rights of modification under section 117.
What does all this mean for the free software world? Once you've legally downloaded a program, you can compile it. You can run it. You can modify it. You can distribute your patches for other people to use. If you think you need a license from the copyright holder, you've been bamboozled by Microsoft. As long as you're not distributing the software, you have nothing to worry about.
Crash Course in Copyright from UT system, including the Digital Library
Internet Seminar Homepage U.Miami School of Law Law 1997 by Prof. Froomkin. University Miami Scholl of Law
Law 978 Patent Copyright and Trademark Law -- Law 978: Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Law Spring 1996 Professor Kim Dayton University of Kansas School of Law
Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier -- MIT + Harvard Law School
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Last modified: February 28, 2008