[kde-edu]: Possible legal issue with KVocTrain

[cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis)]

On Tuesday 15 February 2005 17:00, Peter Hedlund wrote:
> The point is that the script is used to convert "their" files which are
> covered by copyrights and only intended for use with their products.
> Similar to CDs and other content. 

is it possible for users to create their own datafiles in 'their' format?
if so this argument is completely bogus (at least in Europe, in the US the 
DMCA might come into play), reverse engineering a data format is legal.

If you (or somebody else) starts distributing their data then _that_ is 
illegal, Selling a tool to read data in the format they use is a completely 
orthogonal matter, that in no way implies the former (especially if other 
data in that format exists)

> In the meanwhile virtually every tool 
> to copy CDs is forbidden by law.
er, I'm gonna guess you live in the US? cause in Europe this is just 
blatantly untrue (in fact most computers sold tend to include at least 1 
such tool).

In Europe making a backup copy, and format conversion are both completely 
legal, as long as it's for personal use only 

In the US the tool should be legal /unless/ there are _no_ significant legal 
uses of it, even the DMCA says that much (of course it wouldn't be the 
first time that the court's interpretation of 'no significant legal use' 
turns out to defy common sense)

-- 
cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis):
    Coördinator Belgisch Skolelinux team
    Coördinator Nederlandse Skolelinux vertaling
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