July 17th, 2003, 01:11 AM
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Major
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Solomon Islands
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Re: Philosophical Quandry: Piracy
Well, that particular case certainly didn't involve EULA issues. It involved outright software piracy which is a copyright infringement. Copyrighted products are protected by copyright laws and have nothing to do with the EULA, after all books don't come with EULAs, but that doesn't mean that it's legal to copy and distribute copyrighted books.
In a sense this is a straw man issue. The real issue, as most people have realized judging by the direction in which the discussion has moved, is the issue of intellectual property, i.e. patents, trademarks, copyrights and such. Products simply don't need EULAs to be protected from unauthorized copying.
However, in cases where the EULA purports to specify ways in which the product may be used, , or to specify that the product can't be decompiled or analyzed to see how it works, or to restrict the right of the buyer to re-sell the product, then it's on doubtful legal grounds.
[ July 17, 2003, 00:18: Message edited by: deccan ]
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