Re: Win32Ada

[dennison@telepath.com]

In article <73633i$aqs$1@news.nyu.edu>,
  kenner@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) wrote:
> In article <734eo8$41v$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> dennison@telepath.com writes:
> >Lets give an example: Suppose we have a company named BDU who maintains a
> >really nifty GPL GUI builder. They continually make improvements, but only
> >publicly release these improvements at the pitifully slow rate of once a
> >year. Now suppose a crook who we will call CJ breaks into the offices of BDU
> >and copies the latest version of the GUI builder onto a floppy.
> >
> >CJ is clearly guilty of breaking and entering. But does the GPL make it
> >illegal for him to possess that copy of the BDU GUI builder? Does the GPL
> >make it illegal for him to disseminate copies of the stolen version of the
> >GUI builder from his prison cell PC? No, and no.
>
> I'd agree the GPL doesn't make illegal, but I'd be very concerned
> about a criminal charge of "possession of stolen property" against
> anybody who knowingly accepted such material since it *was* stolen and
> is a licenced and copyrighted work.

I don't think that would be a problem. BDU was deprived of no physical
resource, and CJ was meerly copying the software from their hard-drives in
accordance with the software license. By the terms of the license, copying it
from their hard-drives is no different from copying it from their web server.

Perhaps the electrons on CJ's floppy were stolen from BDU's hard drives, but
it would be awfully tough to prove anyone further down the line recieved
those same stolen electrons from the BDU hard-drive.

--
T.E.D.

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