Re: Web application licenses
Brian Thomas Sniffen writes:
> The only way I know of to give a public performance of apache is to
> rent a hall and read the source code from the stage. Running the
> program is not a public performance. Why? Because performance of
> oratory, dance, puppetry, or music itself has creative expression.
> Yoko Ono and William Shatner each sing "Lucy in the Sky" rather
> differently from John and Paul. You *can't* sing an unmodified song.
I hope you are being facetious about reading the source code from a
stage. If not, I suggest you review the applicability of the limit on
public performance to things such as audio bitstreams over a network
and computer games installed on computers at Internet cafes. Clauses
forbidding the latter are common in end-user licenses for multiplayer
games; game publishers prefer to charge Internet cafes more for a more
permissive license. Most US videos and DVD include a copyright
warning that says something to the effect that "This film is licensed
for private home viewing only."
All that is based in the protection of public performance. See, for
example, http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html#performance.
Google is strongly recommended.
Michael Poole
P.S. I am subscribed to debian-legal; there is no need to Cc me.
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