Author: Richard Sutherland
Date: 12:07:40 08/25/99
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On August 25, 1999 at 01:50:26, Micheal Cummings wrote: > >either way doing without the programmers permission, or altering any program for >that matter without the programmers permission is illegal. I'm sorry, but, I don't see that anybody is talking about the correct legal implications here. Once you buy a piece of software, as I see it, you can pretty much do what you want with it, as long as you (a) Don't derive financial benefit from changing it (b) Don't deprive the copyright owners of any financial benefit to which they are entitled. For example, if you buy a car, you can detail it as you like. You can even take the original engine out and put a different one in. You cant, however, make clones of the car and start selling them. To me, this applies to Chess programs to. You can hack and change the code as much as you want as long as you don't sell the changes, use the original code in your own program for resale, make the code or the program available to anyone else to use or use the code on more than one PC. The only legal issue here is whether (a) the acceptance of money for the interface program constitutes deprivation of earnings under copyright laws. If the original code is changed, then it might be, but, if the interface program remains seperate and distinct from CM6000, it is not. Of course, if a copyrighted protocol, like auto232, is used in the interface program, that could be a seperate copyright infringement. <sigh> Just my opinion, Richard
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