Re: [dvd-discuss] Postage Meters and the "Right to Tinker"

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

On 10 Jan 2003 at 17:36, John Zulauf wrote:

Date sent:      	Fri, 10 Jan 2003 17:36:55 -0700
From:           	"John Zulauf" <johnzu@ia.nsc.com>
To:             	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject:        	Re: [dvd-discuss] Postage Meters and the "Right to Tinker"
Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu

> 
> 
> Richard Hartman wrote:
> > 
> > If running TurboTax is not a fair use, then I
> > can't run it even if I _do_ buy a key from them . . .
> > 
> 
> It's not fair until you pay them an receive the authority.  It is not
> the key that gives authority, but the copyright holder at the time you
> exchange money for the key.  The key is just a token of the authority to
> copy granted by the holder of the copyright.

Not correct. you receive the authority of the copyright holder when you receive 
a copy of the copyrighted material from the copyright holder legitimately (in 
this case a gift). 


The real question  is if the pros of allowing the copyright holder to do this 
outweigh the benefits to society of allowing them to do so. A discussion of 
those would be more productive to deciding whether or not this major alteration 
of several hundreds of years of copyright law and practice should be permitted.

> 
> .002
>