Legal Question in Technology Law in Ohio

Re: Software License Agreement

Same as the relationship between License Plate and car.one gives permission to use the other.

Re: Software License Agreement

There is nothing in the Copyright Act to give the copyright owner the power to license the general �use� of a copy. You can use it as a doorstop, for fire starting, or to perform privately. The general �use� (running) of a software program is perfectly legal without a license. You don�t need a license to read a book, watch a movie or listen to music, and I don�t need a license to run the software I�m using to type this text, because there is no copyright over the �private performance� of a work.

�Software License Agreements� often contain both licenses to do things you need the copyright owner�s permission for (such as �this software may be installed on up to three computers,�), and licenses of, or restrictions on, the �use� of a work that fall beyond the copyright owner�s power to license or prohibit. For example, the Copyright Act states that if you are the owner of a lawfully made copy of a computer program, you may sell it or give it away without the copyright owner�s permission, o there is no basis for prohibiting resale. Similarly, �licensed only for use by students� makes no sense because the copyright extends only to public performances, not private ones. The copyright owner may prohibit me from reading a poem aloud in public, but cannot prohibit me from reading it privately. In the same manner, the owner of the copyright in computer software may license or restrict those uses that are among the rights granted in Section 106 of the Copyright Act, but may not restrict those uses that are not subject to copyright.

Section 202 of the Copyright Act says that the rights of the copyright owner and the rights of the copy owner are totally separate things. Licensing the right to reproduce the work onto your hard drive, for example, does not give the copyright owner any power to restrict who you can sell your hard drive to. Similarly, the fact that you own a copy does not give you any right to reproduce it for sale to others, since that right belongs to the copyright owner.

I cannot advise you on the specific facts you may have in mind, but I suggest that you not assume that all of the terms in a Software License Agreement are necessarily valid. If the law gives you rights in the copy that are superior to the rights of the copyright owner, then the copyright owner cannot make your rights disappear just by saying �you are not licensed to do what the law says you can do.�

Now, if your question pertains to whether you would incur any legal risk by disregarding some of the Software License Agreement language, or whether you are even bound by the language at all, I suggest you talk to a copyright lawyer. The penalties for a bad guess can be pretty high.