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Copyright question

Cogman

Lifer
I was just browsing the Javascript on the anandtech page and saw this. "This file may not be redistributed in whole or significant part."

I had to laugh, Isn't the javascript for any webpage distributed in whole every time someone visits your web page. 🙂. Does that mean that anyone who hosts a vbForum is violating their copyright agreement since they are distributing 1000's upon 1000's of copies of their source code.
 
Except that redistributed != distributed. They can ship out copies, you can't.

Just like libraries. Microsoft sometimes decides they are the only ones allowed to host downloads of them, and refuse you the right to put them on your site or package them inside an install.

We have a legacy component in one of our apps that still uses WinHelp instead of CHM, which is a pain since MS has pulled the libraries from all current versions of Windows and only allows them to be downloaded from microsoft.com support.
 
Except they aren't shipping out the copies, anandtech is. They may have distributed the first copy of the software to anandtech, however, anandtech is now redistributing copies of their file all over (since in the file it ascribes the copyright holder to be the vbforums owner, not anandtech)
 
The code you don't see has copyright notices on it too. AnandTech has a license to use the software, and obviously the terms of use include redistribution of the file.

Since you, the user, don't have that license you are the one that the notice applies to when the file is copied to your PC.

Weak analogy: CD pressing plants can press CDs that have "no one can duplicate me" notices on them, because the copyright holder has exempted them from that notice.
 
Meh, lawyers stick that crap in there, and it doesn't necessarily have any relationship to a party's actual rights.

Copyright is actually a very simple thing. You own the copyright to a work as soon as you create it. You don't have to register it, or do anything else to obtain the right. Registration is used to secure the right, and boilerplate text is used to show that you are actively defending the right.

Pretty much every eula is full of dense legal text that is completely ignored, and this falls into that category.
 
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