On Jan 22, 12:04=A0am, "Bill Buckels"  wrote:

> That is true of course and nobody is trying to take away Vince's copyrigh=
t,
> reverse engineer his product, or steal his copyright which by the way is =
on
> the source code and NOT on the binary copy.
>
> I think despite the fact that the US provides the usual silo-istic
> perspective, one needs to understand that there are many other countries
> with a less-mercenary social framework that balance intellectual property
> against the public's rights. In all fairness there are also other countri=
es
> who suppress individual rights and public rights altogether except
> selectively, although this is kind-of like not being able to afford a law=
yer
> in the US:)

And that's precisely it: the purpose of Copyright is to balance the
rights of individuals/organisations vs. the public interest.

Some people here seem to be under the mistaken impression that if an
act violates Copyright then act is absolutely illegal, when in reality
Copyright violations must be evaluated both with respect to both
Copyright and other existing laws in a given jurisdiction. Where other
laws contradict Copyright, they almost invariably take precedence.

For example, the WIPO recommendations that were implemented as the
DMCA in the US (and carried over to countries that have FTA's with the
US) directly violate parts of the Trade Practices Act in Australia and
New Zealand. What does this mean in practice? The classic example is
DVD region coding. Selling a locked player is a violation of the Trade
Practices Act, since it prevents consumers from playing media they've
legitimately acquired. The fact that the DMCA empowers copyright
holders to prosecute those who bypass their encryption locks is
irrelevant in this context.

If we're lucky, some smart legilstator will propose an "Abandonware"
clause that would allow software such as this to be distributed
without fear of reprisal. Of course, whether the hands of vested
interests would ever allow such a clause to enter the law is a matter
for an entirely different debate.

Matt
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