Richard Kenner wrote:
Modifying a program you have legitimately acquired is Fair Dealing.
The Law of the Land gives you the right to do that, even if the
vendor restricts your exercise of that right in practice by
withholding the Source Code.
That is false. Modifying a program is "creating a derivative work".
As purchaser of a copyrighted item, you normally *do not* have that right.
And this certainly may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For a
(quite dated at this point) discussion of this issue from a US perspective,
see
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyPubsPDF.php?facID=346&pubID=157
The author is a recognized expert in software IP law.
Of course, any good attorney will never commit to anything. They will never say
it is alright to do X, unless X is do nothing
Patent & copyright attorneys seem especially non committal, at least in the US.
probably because if any case ever goes to court, the decision and possible
punishment is up to the whims of the judge and/or jury, and every law is up to
interpretation, which can vary from moment to moment.
Law is not physics!
John Novack
--
Dog is my Co-pilot
--
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