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Creative Series Copyright
Information
Questions and Answers on copying our
software
This is
to notify all of our software users that you have the right to make a
backup copy for personal use only. The software can be used on more than one personal computer in the same
location (i.e.laptop and personal PC). The software is not to be copied and
distributed in any way.
What do I need to know about
software and the U.S. Copyright
Act?
Unless
it has been placed in the public domain, software is protected by
copyright law. The owner of a copyright holds exclusive right to the
reproduction and distribution of his or her work. Therefore, it is illegal
to duplicate or distribute software or its documentation without the
permission of the copyright owners. If you have purchased you
copy, however, you may make a backup for your own use in case the original is destroyed
or fails to work.
Can I loan
software I have purchased myself?
If your
software came with a clearly visible license agreement, or if you signed a
registration card, READ THE LICENSE CAREFULLY before you use the software.
Some licenses may restrict use to a specific computer. Copyright law does
not permit you to run your software on two or more computers
simultaneously unless the license agreement specifically allows it. It may, however, be legal to loan your
software to a friend temporarily as long as you do not keep a copy.
If
software is not copy-protected, do I have the right to copy
it?
Lack of copy-protection does NOT constitute permission to copy software in
order to share or sell it. "Non-copy-protected" software enables you to protect you investment
by making backup copy. In offering non-copy-protected software to you, the developer or publisher
has demonstrated significant trust in your integrity.
A Final
Note:
Restrictions on the use of software are far from
uniform. You should check carefully each piece of software and the
accompanying documentation yourself. In general, you do not have the right to:
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receive and use unauthorized copies of software,
or
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make unauthorized copies of software for others.
The copyright infringement of software refers to several practices
when done without the permission of the copyright
holder:
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Creating a copy and or
selling it. This is the act most people refer to as software piracy.
This is copyright infringement in most countries and is unlikely to be
fair use or fair dealing if the work remains commercially available. In
some countries the laws may allow the selling of a version modified for
use by blind people, students (for non-educational product) or similar.
Differences in legislation may also make the copyright
void in some jurisdictions, but not the others.
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Creating a copy and
giving it to someone else. This constitutes copyright infringement in
most jurisdictions. It is not infringing under specific circumstances
such as fair use and fair dealing. In some countries, such as Israel,
creating a copy is completely legal, as long as it was done from
non-profit intentions.
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Creating a copy to serve as a backup. This is seen as
a fundamental right of the software-buyer in some countries, e.g.,
Germany, Spain, Brazil and Philippines. It can be infringement,
depending on the laws and the case law interpretations of those laws,
currently undergoing changes in many countries. In the US, legal action
was taken against companies which made backup copies while repairing
computers (see MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc. (1993)) and as a
result, US law was changed to make it clear that this is not copyright
infringement.
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Renting the original
software. Software licenses often try to restrict the usual right of a
purchaser of a copyrighted work to let others borrow the work. In some
jurisdictions the validity of such restrictions are disputed, but some
require permission from the copyright holder to allow
renting the software.
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Reselling the original
software. Licenses often say that the buyer does not buy the software
but instead pays for the right to use the software. In the US, the
first-sale doctrine, Softman v. Adobe [1] and Novell, Inc. v. CPU
Distrib., Inc. ruled that software sales are purchases, not licenses,
and resale, including unbundling, is lawful regardless of a contractual
prohibition. The reasoning in Softman v. Adobe suggests that resale of
student licensed versions, provided they are accurately described as
such, is also not infringing.
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Bulletin Board
Sharing/Internet Piracy- Albacea et al (2005) states that this
infringement occurs when System Operators shares (electronic transfer)
copyrighted materials on bulletin boards or the internet for users to
download.
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