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

[Fedor Khod'kov]

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.

Functional works can also be used as tools in some commercial
activities; for example, multilingual dictionaries can be used in
translator's workflow; many people use reference books in their work;
and, of course, software, which is used by numerous businesses and
freelancers.

I can imagine copyright system which affects commercial distribution,
demonstration and performing but doesn't have extremely bad effect on
civil rights.

However, other cases are not so clear (for me, at least).  If those, who
want to start business on modification of functional works, are required
to get permission from copyright holders (who can be their competitors
in such activity) to do so -- it can be a serious obstacle for free
competition and progress, acting somewhat like patents.  The same can be
said about commercial support.

Copyright restrictions on use of functional works in commercial
activities can also be a problem.  They require regular inspections, to
determine, which books and software are used, and to check if the user
has permission from copyright holders.  Such regular inspections, when
company's computers and libraries are being checked for violations and
cannot be used for work, can cause harm to the company's workflow.

It's also unclear if it is possible to effectively discover infringement
and respect the presumption of innocence at the same time.  As far as I
know, the only way to check whether one has permission from copyright
holder to use the work in commercial activity is to ask her to supply a
document which prove it, i.e. to make her prove her innocent of
copyright infringement.

Such restriction can also be viewed as violation of freedom of
entrepreneurship.  Article 34, part 1 of the Constitution of Russian
Federation says

   Everyone has the right to freely use his abilities and property in
   entrepreneurship and other legal economical activity.

(I believe such right exists in other countries as well).

Law which demands a person, who wants to use his own computer or book in
such an activity, to ask permission to do so from the copyright holder
of software installed on his computer, or from the book authors, seems
to violate this right.

It is probably already-discussed question, but I couldn't find any place
where it is addressed.  For example, Swedish Pirate Party program
(http://www.piratpartiet.se/international/english) says

   The monopoly for the copyright holder to exploit an _aesthetic_ work
   commercially should be limited to five years after publication

but I failed to find anything about _functional_ works.

What is PPI's position on this topic and where it can be seen?
-- 
Fedor.