Friends
Regarding the antique software of which Andrew Stiller wrote, my
informed lay opinion [NB: I am not an attorney of and do not play one
on either the radio, or the internet] is that there are two overlapping
concerns. With respect to the manuals and media upon which a version of
Finale is supplied (and more recently, the manuals are contained on the
same media as the software), in the U.S., these are the property of the
purchaser who has unrestricted rights to them, including the right to
dispose of them as he or she sees fit and proper.
Separate from the ownership of the media, the software itself is a
separate legal entity. While the purchaser has purchased the media (and
manuals, in some cases), the purchaser has purchased only a license to
use the software. The software itself remains the property of
MakeMusic!, as successor and assignee of Finale and or Net4Music.
While I may legally give or sell the media containing an early version
of Finale to someone else, it remains MakeMusic!'s exclusive right to
determine whether the someone else to whom I give it is entitled to use
the software.
At one point, I contemplated purchasing an earlier version of Finale
than I acquired directly from Coda / Net4Music, and when I enquired
about this, I was told that my serial number would be considered to be
retroactive in that case. However, the person to whom I spoke at the
time was unlikely to have been knowledgeable about the particulars of
intellectual property law, so I consider that to be a personal opinion
of one who happened to be an employee, and perhaps an accurate summary
of the policy of the employer at that time, but not either a legal
opinion, nor one which was binding upon the employer.
ns
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