[Free-sklyarov-uk] a win for sanity! and free speech

[Jim Peters]

Julian T. J. Midgley wrote:
> > > The Softman v. Adobe case basically says "you can have copyright, or
> > > you can have end-user licence agreements, but you can't have both".
> >
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that you
> > needed to be the copyright holder in order to grant a licence.
> 
> Once again, all becomes clear if you read the case notes.
>
> http://cryptome.org/softman-v-adobe.htm

Well, that's only if you are a lawyer.  I found this bit:

  "Title 17 U.S.C. § 106(3) grants a copyright holder the exclusive
   right to distribute, and to authorize distribution of, its
   copyrighted work."

Then they're talking about licences - about Adobe trying to use
licences to get something more restrictive than copyright law alone
would give.

I don't think it says anything about either/or decisions between
copyright and licences.  They'd still have their copyright ownership
and rights whether or not they used a licence.

Is it possible to grant a licence without holding copyright (or
without having been granted the right to grant sub-licences by the
copyright holder) ?  I don't think so ... I can't grant you a licence
for other people's copyright work.  I mean I can't grant you
additional rights that they haven't already granted you.  Maybe I
could restrict you further, but that's different.

So licencing of a work is built on top of copyright.

If someone with greater legal awareness than me can see a flaw in what
I've just said, please point it out.  This could all just be a
simplistic understanding of the situation compared to the `truth' by
legal standards.

(Having read through that document, I'm glad I don't have to do this
for a living).

Jim

P.S.  In a world without copyright, then I probably *could* licence
someone else's work to you, unless they'd previously got me under a
licence prohibiting me from doing that.  (Assuming that a licence is
really just a legal agreement).  But with copyright, the copyright
laws mean that by default no-one else has the right unless the holder
says so.

Again, please correct me if I'm mistaken.

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