PD—-
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Dave, COMPUTE! **SAYS** their programs are not public domain. They SAY you
must own a copy of the magazine if you have the program in computer readable
form, but I wonder if that principle has ever been legally tested.
Personally, I think their stand is ridiculous. Think about the implications.
I buy the magazine, type the program in, then a year down the road, throw the
mag out. Do I go searching through all my disks and erase any programs that
wer printed in that issue?
Here's an even better one. I buy the magazine featuring Speedscript, buy the
disk with Speedscript on it, and then because I want to update, buy the book
with the source code in it (Like the way they milk a program for all it's
worth to sell mags and books?). Now, suppose I redo a routine, then another,
add a few features, remove a few. When does it stop being Speedscript and
become LarryWord? Do I have to keep the book if I want to keep using my
version? Do I have to keep the original magazine? Th{_e magazines with the
updates?
I'd love to see them take it to court. They may win, but the adverse
publicity would probably not be worth it.
Regards, LArry.