Re: Re: DVD legal maneuvers (decss and the lawyers) (fwd)

[Sunder <sunder@sunder.net>]

Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> Modifying the license agreement violates their copyright. Not to mention
> that if the contract has a no_reverse_engineering clause you're implicitly
> recognizing it and then developing around it.

How?  I go plunk down $100 for MotherFucker Pro V 2.3.4 at CrapWare Etc.  I
take MotherFucker Pro and lo and behold it contains a CD.  I do not give out
copies of MOFOPro to anyone, but use it for my own usage.

Where does it state that first of all I have to install the software?

Why can't I should I feel like it, use the CD as a coaster for my beer, or feed
it to a shredder or a microwave?  Why can't I hang it from my car's rear view
mirror with a string?  

If I can do all of those then, why must I install it using their installer and
agree to their license?  Why can't I, if I feel like it, install it by hand,
extracting whatever files are in it myself?

Why can't I, should I feel like it, read the files off the CD without
installing them making 1 copy on my computer and then modifying that one copy?

Why can't I, if I feel like it, read the pits of the CD by using a strong light
and a microsocope for instance?  Who says I have to use a CDROM reader again?

When I purchase a book, who says I have to read it in any particular order? 
Who says I can't read it odd pages first, then even pages, or should I wish
read every other word, or randomly read words on random pages, or read it
backwards?  

Why should someone be able to dictacte how I read the medium that software is
distributed in?

Forcing me to install software with its installer and more to the point forcing
me to agree to an extraneous license after I have paid for my copy of the
software is stating I have to read every page in sequential order starting from
the first page and not skipping around.  Copyright law does not provide
protection for against this.

Certainly should I chose to I may edit a book by using old fashioned razor
blade and white paste, or ink and WhiteOut(tm) if I so wish to edit words
around it.

Why should someone dictate that I not do the same when it comes to software? 
Where does their copyright get violated should I disassembly or reverse
engineer the software?  

As long as I don't make more than a single backup copy of the software, or
loan/rent it to friends, who says I am not allowed to do with it as I please?

At no point, whether I read the software in with a microscope, or make 1 copy
to my hard drive and modify that copy any which way I feel like it is the
publisher's copyright violated. PERIOD.  Notice I said nothing of the software
license.

So if I am able to do all of the above things, so long as I don't make extra
copies, sell, rent, lease, or loan copies, or give copies away of the sofware,
how is it I'm violating their copyright?

And if I don't agree to their license, but use the software anyway after having
paid for it, provided I do not violate their COPYRIGHT, how is it that I'm
violating that copyright?

The software is protected by copyright, yes, but not by the license.  It cannot
be protected by the software license, because I have not YET agreed to one. 
Copyright laws say nothing about licenses, and rightfully cannot.

Like purchasing a book and reading the words, I can purchase a CD and read the
1's and 0's off it in any manner and way I chose!  Like purchasing a book,
should I decide to edit those words, I may do so.

While I may not own the copyright on books and CD's that I purchase, I own
their media as I have paid for it, and so long as I do not violate the
copyright of said books, or CD's by duplicating them other than ONE backup, I
do not have to agree to any license.

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