Who Owns Software?

SeeSp0tRun writes to remind us of Blizzard's lawsuit against MDY Industries over the Glider cheat. It seems that Blizzard is pushing it even further. They're trying out the legal theory that a software creator retains complete control over how a program is used, meaning that anyone who uses it in a different way could be found guilty of copyright infringement, at $750 a pop. The EFF and Public Knowledge are among the organizations trying to assure that the court doesn't set a really bad precedent here.

Comments

Re:How it's used?

[fahrbot-bot]

If someone uses it "wrong" and "hurts" me, does that mean I can sue the developer, since he is the one in charge of how it is used?

More to the point. If someone uses it "right" and hurts someone...

Wow!

[gstoddart]

So, could they say no fat people not wearing pants can use their software? How about nobody under the age of 30? Black people? White people? Brown people?

At what point, does their assertion they can control "how it is used" completely break down and be outside of the realm of copyright law, beyond what you can do in an EULA, and just plain silly.

I would say they've basically gone into the plain silly category. But, who knows. Courts have upheld the damnedest things.

Cheers

Re:How it's used?

[Kjella]

Any restrictions would be contractual obligations, which have nothing to do with legal obligations. The contract doesn't regulate illegal use since it's per definition already illegal. Besides, what kind of logic is that? The government dictates a maximum speed limit. So if I crash while under the speed limit, can I sue the government because they're responsible for how I drive?

Re:How it's used?

[sm62704]

Easy solution: You sell the software and I'll use it any way I damned well please, just as copyright law allows. If Blizzard gets away with this Congress needs to change copyright law.

The only problem with the changing copyright law thing is that the corporate controlled Congress will change it the wrong fucking way like they almost always do.

How I would change copyright:

• Book, music, movie, and image copyrights: 20 years, ten year extension
  
• Software copyrights: Five years, must include the source code, five year extension on old parts of the work
  
• Out of print works go directly into the public domain (none of this Disney bullshit of taking a movie off the market for seven years)
  
• Any private, noncommercial use is statutorily considered non-infringing, including distribution
  
• No copyright can be held by a corporation. All copyrights are held by the works author or authors
  
• Anyone caught abusing copyright like the record companies do and like Blizzard is doing here loses all copyrights they hold, and may not hold copyright for another five years
  
• No work is copyrighted unless application is filed along with two copies in the Library of Congress
  
• Cowboy Neal is in the public domain

Re:Obvious answer!

[ColdWetDog]

I'll just join the chorus - it is an issue with many vendors - not only with games. I tried to do a cross platform switch with Adobe Premiere Pro. I've had Premiere since 1.0 and have upgraded three times. They wanted every single serial number since, oh 2003 or so.

After rummaging around, I managed to find the two previous upgrades, but not the original one. They wouldn't do it.

So now I use Final Cut.

You've just screwed yourself out of future upgrade money.

Strong work, Adobe.