LDSInfobase.net Folio Viewer

[Guest Topspin]

Question. Is it legal what this guy has been doing to the Folio Viewer Program in turning it from a viewer into an editor by unlocking all the full features of the program? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't other people have to pay the company up to a thousand dollars just to buy the full features of the Folio Software if they wanted to edit and create their own infobases? Otherwise all they would have if they were not willing to pay such a huge sum of money was just the viewer to view instead of creating their own info bases..... is that correct?

I have read his site and he admits to the world that hes not willing to pay the company a thousand dollars to purchase the full authoring licensing rights from the company to create his own infobases with the

Folio software.

So this guy went ahead undoing the program and has written a tutorial telling everybody how to unlock the authoring system of the program within the viewer without paying the Folio company a cent and that to

me sounds like hes ripping off their revenue and sales.

Isn't this kind of reverse engineering (unlocking disabled features) to uncripple a program

in violation of Copyright Law as violation of the company's rights?

Hes also distributing The General Conferences of the Church from 1970-1897.

I am not even sure if he has the legal permissions from the Church to distribute

the conferences, as I wanted the conferences from 1953-1924 but It might

not be legal to have them.

For I own in hard copy, all the Church Conferences from 2008-1953.

I know that legally from 78 years of the date of creation of a work, that a work is protected under

copyright until abt 1923 or it falls into the public domain UNLESS the copyright holder has decided to

renew the copyright on older work to prevent it falling into the public domain....

So I don't know the legal status when it comes to older church materials... So I might be allowed

to take all the conferences from the years 1923-1897 which might be now fallen in the public

domain, but probably not from 1952-1924 in case the copyright is still protected.

I also know that Intellectual Reserve (the copyright holder of the church magazines) has

given legal permission for us to use its materials for Church and home study use. BUT THAT

MIGHT ONLY APPLY IF YOU actually OWN THE HARDCOPY of the church magazine in question

that you want to copy out of.....

Because I find it strange that the church DIDN'T EVEN PUBLISH the years from 1970-1897 of the General Conference Reports on its Church Magazine CD of the Improvement Era with the Folio Viewer software.

So there may have been a legal issue, maybe that's why the church didn't publish those years.

So is it legal to copy older church materials for home personal use out of the Improvement Era in the

years 1952-1924 IF I DON'T OWN the hardcopies of those years. That's my question....

As for this Fair use idea, well that to me seems to only be a very limited permissions to make only brief

quotations or portion of a copyrighted work in magazines, articles, or in reviews.....I don't think it covers copying

the whole work for personal use....

Anyone in here or a lawyer who knows all about the ins and outs of this concerning the older church materials?