Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!tilde.csc.ti.com!mksol!mccall From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (Fred McCall) Subject: Re: Selling CD-ROMs/Copyright Message-ID: <1994Apr4.032647.3080@mksol.dseg.ti.com> Organization: Texas Instruments Inc X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0] References: Distribution: alt Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 03:26:47 GMT Lines: 28 Brian Mueller (brianm@U.WASHINGTON.EDU) wrote: : I hate to disagree with you mike, but accoriding to the classes that I : have taken in law (keep in mind only three), the law states that when you : agree to a set of copyright rules, you are bound to exactly what it : states you are able to do. If the rule says that you cannot sell the : item, then you cannot sell the item. So if you hypothetical situation of : buying a car, and the manual said that you cannot sell the car, then you : CANNOT sell the car, or the car company can sue you for breaking the : copyright law. As silly this may sound to you, this is the law (as I : have been thaught.) You are confusing copyright law (which is fixed -- what is and is not protected by copyright is written into the law) and contract law (which can say any bloody thing the contracting parties want it to, pretty much). Shrinkwrap agreements fall under 'contract law'. The legal question is whether opening the package constitutes informed agreement to the provisions of the contract. Personally, were I you, I would not bet on not being held to this. If they say not to sell it and you elect to keep it (if you don't have an option to return the product after you find out that that's one of the provisions that's another issue), it is unethical to sell it. -- "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.