Don't copyleft my right to kick your butt

Antivirus & Antitrojan writers/companies take note: Read the SpyMon licence before you attempt to add SpyMon to your list of programs you block - the licence forbids you (antivirus/antitrojan companies) from downloading, using, examining, etc... As the copyright holder forbids you from doing this; you will break European copyright laws if you do, it is in fact a criminal offence!

Yes, it is - in pretend land.

In the real world, this is a complete and utter nonsense, and something that seems to be on the rise - namely, laughable "conditions" that seek to prevent fair and open-ended exploration of what a piece of software can (and cannot) do. I'm reminded of all those stupid "clauses" that leet hackers put on their leet hax0r websites - the ones that mention Bill Clinton, and how if you're a Fed you're not allowed to view the site. You know the ones. Go check some out, and tell 'em PG sent you. They'll probably poo their pants.

Copyright prevents you from making copies, making spin-offs, displaying / performing, assigning rights to others etc. The guys behind this latest T&C mentions "EU copyright law" - that's something of a misinterpretation. There IS the Berne Convention, to which all members of the World Trade Organisation adhere to for copyright fun and games - but it is up to each individual nation to apply their own interpretation of those laws. Why say EU and not UK? After all, theyre operating out of Middle England. It's rather vague, for such a seemingly scary legal disclaimer don't you think?

Computer programs are usually registered as literary works, and as such, this guy seems to be trying to apply copyright laws that don't actually do what he wants them to - after all, you can't "stop" a novel from working just because you burnt the book - the idea still exists because it has already been expressed in a tangible form. And as copyright only covers the expression of an idea and not the idea itself, I would imagine this guy would need to patent his software instead - and even then, i'm not sure if patent laws would let you get away with such a bold "hands off" prohibitive statement to one specific group of people.

In other words, he can stick a notice like that on there if he likes, but I don't believe it has anything to do with copyright laws, as such. He's just trying to make it look more impressive than it actually is. And of course, if this actually held any water in law courts, I rather imagine the big guns would have placed warnings like this on their software years ago. Why has this not happened?

Is it because, you know - it's a load of rubbish?

Alex E and the Sunbelt Brigade (wow, that sounds like the coolest album title of all time!) have, of course, already blogged this up - think of this as the reserves charging out from the trenches and adding some moral support, and probably skewering a few mulchy punks with large stabby things too. Unlike Sunbelt, I have no incredibly expensive lawyers, but I went to my own legal team and they told me everything above is quite possibly, almost categorically true.

By the way....IANAL. IANAL. IANAL.

Just thought I'd throw that in there. A few hundred times should do the trick. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to build a removal tool that specifically targets applications with crazy license terms.

Something tells me I'll be putting in for some overtime on this one...