My wife’s uncle who lives here in Bogotá, Colombia uses Kazaa just downloaded a Software Program of Flight Simulator type. I say it is illegal to do this and he doesn’t agree. What are the SD thoughts about using Kazaa to get Software?
The factual answer to your question can be found in the software’s license file…
what’d you say?..
uncle-in-law can’t find any license file in the software he downloaded?..
In the U.S., it is indeed illegal, to say nothing of the morality debate. I know nothing of Colombian law.
“A software program of flight simulator type” doesn’t provide enough information to indicate whether he violated American/Canadian law (and then Columbian law would be yet another issue). Was it freeware, shareware, or commercial?
Using Kazaa is not illegal per se. Downloading copyrighted material without permission is. Kazaa is just another easy means of doing that.
Whether it’s illegal for him to download the program depends on the laws in Colombia. Whether it’s illegal for his P2P buddy to upload the program depends on the laws wherever he may be.
FWIW, the Canadian courts have ruled that it’s legal to download from P2P services, but not to upload. I suspect the law is similar in most places.
I didn’t think we discussed anything about Kazaa, etc. here. Maybe the threads I’m thinking of were locked for different aspects of Kazaa. But I want to start a countdown, dammit!
5…
(feel free to ignore countdown if it doesn’t apply.)
I don’t see anything wrong with this thread. You’d have to name the program though for a proper answer though.
Flightgear = fine. Crimson Skies = unlikely to be fine.
BTW, that Canadian decision seems to be restricted to purely music (due to the fact that they’re getting my $$$ every time I burn a Debian ISO. :-P) and not likely to apply to software, images, movies(?), etc. Local laws vary of course, but in this area they’re pretty much uniform IMHO