This Article has been written to let some of you fellow pirates know just what is and isn't illegal in the area of 'Copyright Protection under the law.' This will hopefully expell some of the misconstrued ideas about software pirating. Due to the presence of constant revisions in this area of the law, this information probably won't remain current for a long period of time. The Courts (as usual) can't seem to make any sort of reasonable decisions about any controversial issue! This is probably due to the fact that they insist on ruling on subjects that they have little or no information about!! To Start with, here are a few relevant facts that most of you already know..But I will go through it anyhow, for the benefit of the ignorant. 1: Unauthorized copying of software is illegal. Copyright law protects software authors & publishers, just as patent law protects inventors. 2: Unauthorized copying of software by individuals can harm the entire academic comunity (for those of you in college!). If unauthorized copying proliferates on a campus, the institution may incur a legal liability. Also, the insitution may find it more difficult to negociate agreements that would make software more widely and less expensively available to members of the academic community. 3: Unauthorized copying of software can deprive developers of a fair return for their work, increase prices, reduce the level of future support and enhancement, and inhibit the development of new software products. It has been claimed that if all software pirating stoped, prices would drop considerably. What a crock of shit. They would probably drop a little, but If people are willing to pay that much, wouldn't you be happy with all the extra $$$ coming in! 4: Some common questions about Pirating I have been asked: a: What do I need to know about software and the U.S. Copyright Act? Unless it has been placed in the public domain, software is protected by copyright law. The owner of a copyright holds exclusive right to reproduction and distribution of his or her work. Therefor, it is illegal to duplicate or distribute software or its documentation without the permission of the copyright owner. If you have purchased your copy, however, you may make a backup for you own use in case the original is destroyed or fails to work. b: Can I loan my software I have purchased myself? If your software came with a clearly visible license agreement, or if you signed a registration card, READ THE LICENSE CAREFULLY before you use the software. Some licenses may restrict use to a specific computer. Copyright law does not permit you to run your software on two or more computers simultaneously unless the license agreement specifically allows it. It may, however, be legal to loan your software to a friend temporarily as long as you don't keep a copy. (what a crock of shit! like I'm gonna go buy 2 copies of Windows to run on both computer I have set up..) c: If software is not copy-protected, do I have the right to copy it? Lack of copy-protection does NOT constitute permission to copy software in order to shar or sell it! Now this had to be one of the dumber questions asked of me...No Protection just makes it a little easier to either make backups or commit a crime! 5: An alternatives to requiring use of the same program in bulk quantities is a site license. This is usually cheaper than buying many copies of the same software package. 6: In finishing this section, restrictions on the use of software are far from uniform! You should check carefully each piece of software and the accompying documentation yourself. According to officials, you do not have the right to make unauthorized copies for or get copies from anyone when the Copyright Laws are in effect. Now, the legalities of this are a crock of shit! There is a little thing called the Infringing Act. For your convienience, I'll quote ut for you. "The Use of an Infringing Copy: Under the Copyright Act, copyright does not extend to limit the 'use' of a computer program in a computer. However, if this should extend even to cases where an infringing copy of a computer program is used in a computer, the result would be unjustifiably detrimental to the author's interests. In the case of works other than a program works, such use of the infringing copies usually accompanies acts which also make such copies available to the public by distribution. These acts are, then, deemed to be an infringement of the copyright. The use of an infringing copy of a program work is, however, usually not accompanies by acts which make it public. The Amended Act takes notice of this special feature of computer programs by declaring that the use for business purposes of a copy of a program work in a computer which was made by an act which infringed the copyright on said program work, shall be deemed to be an infringement of the copyright in the program work only when such a fact of infringement was known at the time of obtaining rights to use the copy. Ignorace of the fact of infringement is a defense! Now, for those of you yet to recieve your Law degree, this is saying that distribtion is DEFINITLY illegal..as most of you already knew....To recieve a copy of a program from someone else, use it for you own use, and not send it around is also illegal, BUT!!!! Only if you KNEW IT WAS ILLEGAL! This is one case where Ignorance of the Law is a defense...So for all you people with Gigabytes of software offline...This should make you feel somewhat better... The next thing to address is the Supreme Court Ruling on the LEGAL copies of Video Tapes in a persons home. A person can legally copy a video tape for his own personal private use. Video tape happenes to be in the same class of magnetic media that Software resides. A person could make one hell of an arguement about this very subject. After consulting with a few attourneys, they all said that the possibility of the FBI or ANYONE for that matter, breaking in to someones house is COMPLETLY FAR FETCHED! The Court systems just don't want to have to deal with all the 'rinky dink' cases of minor software pirating, especially when they don't have a firm supportive base for their case! The FBI man hours, the courts wasted time, and the small about of money they are dealing with equals up to the fact that people like you and me are basically in NO DANGER of getting busted. Many of the attourneys expect a ruling from the Supreme Courts specifically putting Software in the same class as Video Tapes. The Final thing I wish to address is the area of punishment. Even through the possibility is very low, IF a companiy chose to put the time into it, and IF a company chose to press charges on someone for distributing programs, and IF they had enough evidence to make a case, the penalties are as follows: Base level 6: For programs under $2000, a maximum punishment of 6 months in Jail and up to a $25000 fine is plausable. The people I have consulted with have seen NO cases of which a person was prosecuted for 'having' programs in his possession, but anything is possible. Above level 6: Up to 5 years in Prison, and up to a $250,000 fine. The Penalties listed are on the bases of a EACH COPY OF A PROGRAM. Major ouch when I heard this one. Now, what this tells me and the attourneys I consulted with is that a sentence under one year is usually consituted as a non-felony charge. Not necessarily a misdemeanor, but definitly not a felony. To most people, this would be extremely good news. I personally am too old to go around with a felony on my record! This concludes my article and I hope it has cleared up a few things for you! And if not, It's just not my problem!! Cool Hand INC Vise President