[Haskell-cafe] containers license issue

[Mike Meyer]

On 12/17/12, Ketil Malde <ketil at malde.org> wrote:
>  I would use "copying" to mean verbatim cut-and-pasting, which is something else.

I feel I should point out that, while that's currently a common
definition of "copying", it's not the legal definition. Copyright law
predates the ability to mechanically create copies of a work. The
closest you could come was the printing press, which started with what
was at the time a handmade mirror image of the work you were going to
print copies of.

Back then, the only way to create a copy of a printed page (or
anything else that wasn't created with the express purpose of being
duplicated) was to read the original, and transcribe it into a copy.
There was no "cut-n-paste" or "copy command" - just reading and
creating another copy by hand. Changes made along the way that
depended on the original - adding illustrations or illuminations,
setting it to music, re-arranging it into a script for a play, or
translating it to another language - were all considered derived
works, and hence infringing.

IANAL, but I've been studying copyright law since before the US signed
the Berne treaty. Generally, copyright law in the US has been getting
stricter, not more permissive - largely because the only people who
cared were the large copyright holders. In general, new media brought
under the purview of copyright is treated as strictly as the law can
be interpreted.

In the US, most radio stations pay a license fee in order to play
music. Bars and restaurants (and even the Girl Scouts!) are required
to pay a license fee for public performances if they play live or
recorded music. If you buy media capable of recording music or video,
part of the cost is used to compensate the copyright holders of the
presumably infringing copies you're going to make onto them. If I took
a picture of my living room, I'd technically be in violation of a slew
of copyrights (images of the statuary on the mantelpiece, paintings
hanging on the wall, etc.) but chances are that nobody would care
unless I included images from a FOX television show.

Personally, I think this is silly, but it's the law.