How cute... a lecture on copyright law coming from someone who just literally ripped off the intellectual works of www.copyright.com, by copying from their resources verbatim and not even supplying a source reference... to make it sound as if you actually wrote it yourself. Hah.

Please take a moment to read their Copyright Statement.

You must include the copyright notice in any copy that you make.
You may not modify the information found in copyright.com without the express permission of Copyright Clearance Center.

The above information is ©1995 - 2003 Copyright Clearance Center

Theif.
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To follow up your arguement... The line that seperates that which is created by the mind or with the hand is becoming increasingly smaller. Cars are becoming almost completly computer driven, as their mechanical parts are being replaced with 1's and 0's... but the car still functions the same as it did before; it's still a car.

To compare mIRC, a program functioning not unlike a telephone or television set, with classical arts such as Shakespeare or Da Vinci is inane. While they are indeed a product of the mind, they are by no means the same.

Yet, there is no law that prohibits me from scratching out Romeo's name with Raccoon or playing Tic-Tac-Toe on the Mona Lisa in the privacy of my own home... so why should it be against the law for anyone to modify mIRC in the same way, for private undistributed use..?

- Raccoon

Well. At least I won lunch.
Good philosophy, see good in bad, I like!