Re: A89: Me distributing roms.


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Re: A89: Me distributing roms.




see the thing is. The internet is public domain. It's precisly the opposite
on the internet. If someone doesn't say it's private then it's not. Unlike
say the Owner of the lawnmower saying it is free and you can take it because
of that and if it's on his lawn and you take it without him knowing it's
thieft, on the internet if it's on his lawn it's automatically free. He
would have to put a sign up saying do not take and while maybe a case could
be formed against someone who did it'd never get prosecuted. The internet
has over 400 million people that pass through it in a single day, the law on
a public network is not only free is that which you can attain but even
extends to free is that which you can attain from sources other than its
distrobutor. You'll notice that precisly for reasons such as this adobe
doesn't offer a download of it on their site. (Trialware maybe?) If they did
no words other than not being there in the first place are equivalent to do
not touch.

----- Original Message -----
From: Cassady Roop <croop@oregontrail.net>
To: <assembly-89@lists.ticalc.org>
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 6:48 AM
Subject: 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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