Re: [Patents] bsa method: Through December 31, 2004, a reward of 10% of any recovery value up to £20,000 will be paid for information which leads to successful judgment or settlement

[Philippe Coulonges <cphil@cphil.net>]

Le Mon, 3 Jan 2005 12:04:23 +0100
Alain Knaff <patent@lka.org.lu> écrivait :

> On Monday 03 January 2005 10:57, PILCH Hartmut wrote:
> > > > Software piracy causes widespread damage. To business... to your
> > > > As you know, there are many kinds of software piracy: from using
> > > > one disk to install a program on multiple computers to
> > > > downloading software from the Internet.Every example is illegal
> > > > and dangerous.
> > >
> > > Is it legal in the UK to spread such a lie as "downloading
> > > software from the Internet is illegal" ?
> >
> > I didn't see such a statement in the BSA text.
> 
> Just for the record: Yes, there is:
> 
>   As you know, there are many kinds of software piracy: from using one
>   disk to install a program on multiple computers to downloading
>   software from the Internet.Every example is illegal and dangerous. 
>                     ^^^^^
> 
> For me this seems to imply that every example of downloading software
> from the Internet is illegal, which is clearly not the case.

I understood this part as :
there are many kinds of software piracy, as exemples you have 
1) using one disk to install a program on multiple computers
2) downloading software from the Internet
And both these exemples (of software piracy) are illegal and dangerous.

To add insult to injury, you can note the "from ... to ..." form, which
may be seen as a crecendo from a more benign form of piracy (you have a
legal copy in the first exemple) to a much graver one.

The message is then "Don't touch this download link or go to hell, don't
read the GPL"

> > It is clear to me that they are talking about special sites where
> > unlicensed software is offered.

It is clear to me that they are not talking about these site. That is
the part they carefully let in the shadow.
I'm persuaded that they would say they "intended" to talk about these
sites.

> They are not talking about "special sites", but about "every example".
> 
> Had they said "most examples", the sentence would have been much less
> ambiguous about their intent.

They seem to master the FUD art.

CU
CPHIL

-- 
The pointy-haired boss miraculously combines two qualities that are
common by themselves, but rarely seen together: (a) he knows nothing
whatsoever about technology, and (b) he has very strong opinions about
it.
        -- Paul Graham "Revenge of the nerds"