Re: A89: Me distributing roms.


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Re: A89: Me distributing roms.




Fine, I'll photocopy his lawnmower and drive away with that. :)

Still, the point my analogy tries with great dificulty to get across is
that regardless whether there are passwords and payment and such, even
if they advertise it as 'free', it is not public domain unless they
expressly say so.  The law is to protect the rights of the programmer to
control his program, not to protect the right of the downloader to take
it.  TI can say it is free or $100, it makes no difference in the
legality of the matter, because they still have the final decision as to
whether it is public domain, or whether it will be free or sold, or
whether they will be the only legal source of it.

Cassady Roop

Bryan Rabeler wrote:
> 
> Well, when you steal a lawnmower, the owner doesn't have it anymore.  When you
> download a file, you just copy it and the owner still has it.
> 
> Bryan
> 
> >
> > So, by similar logic, if someone leaves their door unlocked, you would
> > feel justified in walking into their house even if you don'e even know
> > them?
> >
> > Or if I had a truck (the computer) and I wanted your lawnmower, and it
> > was just sitting there on your lawn without any gate (passwords) or
> > for-sale sign on it (no payment), it would be legal for me to put the
> > lawnmower in my truck (download) and drive away with it?


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