Re: defining "distribution" (Re: A few more LPPL concerns)
Jeff Licquia <licquia@debian.org>:
> > When I execute a program, this is not a distribution. When I allow
> > others to execute it, I distribute it -- even if there is no actual
> > copying of bits between magnetic media.
>
> Actually, it's not clear that this is true. For example, technically a
> CD player "makes a copy" of a CD into its internal memory in order to
> play the music encoded upon it. This is not considered to be "copying"
> because this copy is required in order to gain access to the copyrighted
> work you supposedly paid for when you bought the CD. In other words,
> playing a CD is a "fair use" copying right, and I can execute that right
> whether I'm the person who plunked down $20 for the particular CD or
> not.
"Fair use" normally means the copying of an excerpt from a work for
the purposes of criticism, teaching, etc. I think the "copy" made by a
CD player is not copying at all as far as most copyright law is
concerned, but I don't have a definition of copying to hand. You
should probably compare a CD player's transient copy with home video
recording, or copying a CD onto tape so that you can listen to it in a
car, or making a back-up copy of a tape, all of which are are allowed
in most countries, as far as I know.
Edmund
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