Re: Contrary to Morality - What is that?

At 11:50 AM 10/3/2005, josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com wrote:
>I encountered a statement in license that I do not fully understand and I
>am turning to this discussion forum for help in interpreting the
>statement. As a gift, my wife gave me Chessmaster 10th Edition. After long
>procrastination, I finally decided to install it in my PC. As the
>installation was proceeding, the license was presented to me. Because I
>was going to use the software for my other project, I had to read license
>very carefully. The portion that stopped me from continuing the
>installation is this: It is not permitted: - To make copies
>… - To operate … - To use it contrary to morality or
>the laws in force, - To modify … - To transmit
>… - To create …. - To decompile, reverse engineer or
>disassemble … Exactly what does "contrary to morality" mean? I searched
>Internet and found some references on it. But, all of them are related to
>patent. I could not find anything relating to the use of software. So, I
>sent a question on the meaning of "contrary to morality" to Ubi Soft's
>on-line support. (Ubi Soft is the manufacturer of Chessmaster 10th
>Edition.) After hearing nothing from the on-line support for one or two
>weeks, I decided to call Ubi Soft's support. I asked the person who
>answered my call about the meaning of "contrary to morality". He put me
>on hold for a while (I did not time it but I estimated that it was one or
>two minutes). He then explained to me that it was a blanket statement to
>prevent people from breaking any copyright laws. I was tempted to ask him
>to elaborate that but knowing that he was not expert in legal language, I
>thanked him for his time and I hanged up phone. I thought more about what
>he said. If it is really that obvious that "contrary to morality" means
>breaking any copyright laws, why is this specific wording chosen over
>other wording? Is this an example where Ubi Soft went overboard and
>borrowed the language from patent? If "contrary to morality" actually is
>applicable to Chessmaster, can anyone think of examples where using
>Chessmaster is contrary to morality? Joseph Pietro Riolo
><josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com> <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>

My understanding of "contrary to morality" is that it is *broader* than simply contrary to copyright laws. I've seen the term in discussions of civil law jurisdictions (e.g., France, Germany, Switzerland), often synonymously with "contrary to public policy." I don't believe that it's limited to patent law, but that's just the area in which you came across it; it can come up in the field of contracts as well (for example, whether contracts relating to gambling are enforceable ), and I believe that it comes up in the area of free speech, too.

Given that Ubisoft is headquartered in France (http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/AboutUbisoft/Default.aspx?cpid=181), its use of this term shouldn't be surprising. This kind of boilerplate probably finds its way into many other types of legal documents, whether or not any particular application is contemplated; but if you should come up with a use of Chessmaster that is contrary to morality, Ubisoft's covered. It may have other products that are susceptible to such illegal uses, and it's just easier to leave that clause in.

S. Martin Keleti
Cohen and Cohen
740 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038-3339
323.938.5000
323.936.6354 fax Received on Tue Oct 04 2005 - 00:45:31 GMT