Stefaan A Eeckels wrote: [...] > Of course they can. The copyright holder most definitely cannot control > how the software is used (unless there is a contract stipulating > such), because copyright law doesn't give such rights - it's the right > to make and distribute copies that is granted to the copyright holder,
The right to distribute authorized copies is statutory. See 17 USC 109 (it is commonly called "first sale", but the actual parameters of the rule are specified in the statute and not some lay reading of "first", "sale", or even "first sale"). Over here in the EU, that statutory doctrine is known as "copyright exhaustion". http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/resources/feedback/OIIFB_GPL3_20040903.pdf Note that that Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute is no stranger. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hoeren http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/panel/profiles/hoeren.pdf MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL BODIES Member/Vice President, German Association for Law and Informatics (DGRI); Member, Society for Computers and Law, U.K.; Member, German-Japanese Law Association, Hamburg and Tokyo; Co-editor "Computer und Recht", Computer and Law, Cologne; Member, Institute for European Media law, Saarbrücken; Member, Editorial Board, Law, Computers and Artificial Intelligence, BNA's Electronic Information Policy and Law Report and EDI Law Review; Legal Advisor, European Commission/DG XIII, Legal Advisory Board on Information Technology; Co-editor, Multimedia und Recht, Munich; Member, Task Force Group on Intellectual Property Rights of the European Commission; Legal expert in several research projects commissioned by the European Commission/DG III (COPEARMS), DG XIII (MULTISOLUTION, EDIBOL, EDIPAY) and the DG XV; Member, Legal Advisory Board, DENIC, Frankfurt. AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION Intellectual Property law; Internet Regulation; Information Law; Unfair Competition Law; International Business Law. EXPERIENCE IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Judge at the Court of Appeal in Düsseldorf within the Trademark & Copyright Senate; Professor in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Muenster; Member, Task Force Group on Intellectual Property Law, European Commission/DG XIII. regards, alexander. _______________________________________________ Gnu-misc-discuss mailing list Gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss