Date   : Mon, 24 Oct 1983 04:23:00 EDT
From   : Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE@mit-mc>
Subject: BASCOM Patch

As INFOWORLD said this week:
       If Van Nostrand charged you $100 for the Science
Encyclopedia and then said only one person in your househoud
could read it, what would be the likely result?
       The Constitution forbids monopolies,  except under some
stringent circumstances to encourage the useful arts.  Copyright
law certainly won't protect that "one user" nonsense.  There is
certainly no ethical reason why I should pay police and FBI to
prevent two people from using the same book...