Re: RES: What makes software copyrightable anyway?
On 5/18/05, Michael K. Edwards <m.k.edwards@gmail.com> wrote:
> If nothing else, 17 USC 117 and dynamic linking absolutely protect you
> from this theory of infringement in the US. Many jurisdictions are
> said to have equivalents. IANAL, etc.
Lest that should be misinterpreted: Note that 17 USC 117 protects you
from theories of run-time-only copyright infringement, but not from
other respects in which one might be distributing an unauthorized
derivative work (as in Micro Star v. FormGen) or acting in breach of
contract. A contract can place many kinds of restrictions on what one
may or may not do at run-time. 17 USC 117, historically, appears to
be meant as a correction to over-broad judicial constructions of a
copyright holder's right to block run-time uses of which it
disapproves after the fact.
Cheers,
- Michael
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