Re: Altering Programs

Responding to Ari Kahan's response to Tyler Ochoa: your concerns about the potential sweep of Mirage may be entirely valid, but the hypotheticals you posed are easy, as far as they go. Your copy of a book with marginal notes is no problem at all unless you try to copy it and sell the copies, in which case it's a bit like our old friend the 123.MU file (the version of the 1-2-3 menu structure sold by Borland, which had additional menu commands interpolated in it). You can't copy a copyrighted work, add some commentary between paragraphs, and sell it as your own work -- nothing new there. And your desire to "edit the object code" of your legitimate copy of your print utility program (leaving aside potential license restrictions) is protected by Section 117(1), which specifically allows you to make an "adaptation" provided the adaptation "is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner" -- that manner being in this case sale to others, which is the key I think to Professor Ochoa's point. Hope you're well.

Kerry L. Konrad
<k_konrad[_at_]stblaw.com> Received on Fri Feb 12 1999 - 15:55:55 GMT