WordPerfect
I can't say I'm a copyright expert, but my job brings me into contact with
very heavy international copyright issues and so I do a great deal of
reading, and have many reference books … so here's my ha'p'orth:
The software you buy is copyright … it therefore does not allow you to do
anything other than let it sit in its box! You cannot legally transfer it
to your hard-disk or even store it in your machine's RAM! (let alone make
back-ups), without breaking copyright law (US, UK and International
copyright law are much the same in this particular area, although the
`electronic form' may not include machine RAM in some countries).
However, there is a restricted licence issued with the software which
allows you to perform things that would otherwise be illegal … that
includes copying it to your hard-disk, making back-ups and so on. It
basically gives you the basic legal rights you need to use the software.
In the UK (I don't know about the US, because it's part of consumer law and
not copyright law), if an explicit licence is not supplied with the
software there is an `implied licence' which would at least allow you to do
with the software whatever it was you bought it for (which means copying it
to hard-disk etc).
The basic legal principle is that a licence permits acts that would
otherwise be illegal .. and a licence, in itself, cannot restrict an act
which would otherwise be _legal_.
Mike (from the UK)