RE: Aren't plans copyrighted
Ownership of a personal copy gives you the right to dispose of it as you see fit.... that's a pretty definitive statement that I keep hearing repeated here. Are you sure?
I recall a software dispute between the video game retailers Gamestop/Electronics Boutique and one of the publishing associations. A kid can buy a $50 video game, finish it in a couple of days and be back at the store wanting to buy another. The retailers began buying the used games for about 10cents on the dollar and reselling them at 95% of new and a MUCH, MUCH better profit margin. Obviously this was killing new game sales and threatening the publishing industry. Buried in the software we buy is a "user agreement" that we mouse click "agree" to without reading so we can install our software. The game software legal boiler plate in a nutshell says we don't own the software, we are just renting it! This was intended to protect the integrity of the software from gaming mods that could expose the publisher to unforeseen liability (damaged hardware, viruses,etc) but they used it to win a suit stopping the retailers from reselling "their" games.