[ros-kernel] Microsoft Give-Away

[ea at iol.it]

> >(Section 3.1.ii : "that the Redistributables only operate in conjunction 
> >with Microsoft Windows platforms")
> 
> I doubt it's a legal restriction. In fact I only read this kind of shit in 
> the software world (the multimedia too, but it's where the copyright 
> insanity started). Two weeks ago I attended a meeting of hackers and 
> brought 50 ReactOS CDs to give away for free - and did I have to ask 
> permission to the producer of the blank CDs? to the producer of the printer 
> I used to print the CD pockets on? to the producer of the paper? what if I 
> sold the CDs? Without *my* work, time and efforts, they would have just 
> been a bunch of blank CDs, a stack of paper and some immaterial bits on a 
> hard disk. My contract with the tool makers and the material refiners has 
> been satisfied in the moment I paid for their work

Commercial software is "licensed" not "sold". After paying for it, you ar not the legal owner of the copy you get. You probably own the cd-rom, the case, the box and the booklet, but not the software. That is how IP works.