[pp.int.general] Commercial use of functional works

[Edison Carter]

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 6:21 AM, Fedor Khod'kov <fedor76 at istra.ru> wrote:

> Hello!
>
> Pirate Parties demand freedom to use and distribute all kind of works
> non-commercially, reserving copyright to commercial use.  There are many
> different forms of commercial use.  One form is commercial distribution,
> when fee is being charged for copies.  Aesthetic works can be
> demonstrated or performed commercially.
>
> Functional works, such as computer software, textbooks and dictionaries,
> can be modified for fee in the way desired by a customer.  Software can
> be supported commercially.
>

"Noncommercial" is a huge can of worms wherever it appears. There's an
entire spectrum between the clearcut case of 'selling a copy' and ... I
think there is possibly not even a clearcut case of 'non-commercial?

Where does this become non-commercial?
- Selling a copy.
- Giving away a copy free, but only with purchase of something else
- Giving away copies without obligation, but where the goal is to attract
people who may purchase other things
- Giving away copies but putting paid-for advertising alongside it.
- Facilitating the free exchange of copies (without directly doing any of
the copying) and displaying advertising along the way.
- Giving away copies and gaining goodwill (an accountable businesses asset)
simply by virtue of being the giver.

I don't think there is such a problem with "Functional works' though.
Copyright applies only to the person doing the copying. If I have been given
a copy of a dictionary then it becomes my dictionary to use as I like, as
long as I am not making further copies of it.

Compare with GPL software. Once I have legally obtained a copy of the
software, that becomes 'my copy'. The GPL does not remotely restrict
anything that I do with the software, until the point that I want to make a
copy for someone else which is where 'copyright' is triggered again.

It would also help if we could kill the silly idea amongst non-free software
companies that installation from the CD and transient copies in memory all
count as potential copyright infringement, which I believe is what leads to
the idea that the end user must be granted a licence to even make use of the
software they purchased.
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