HN user
the upstream Perl tarball […] contains an ever increasing set of modules
I don't think this is true. I count a total of 6 modules added and 10 removed in stable releases of Perl from 5.12.0 (that is, since Perl adopted its current release-management process). Corrections welcome if I'm miscounting, of course.
Another distinction is that Scotland has its own devolved parliament. Some issues, including copyright, are reserved to the UK government, but Scotland can (and does) pass its own laws on devolved issues.
Charlie, while both you and Cutbot are in Scotland, this is actually a UK issue. First, copyright is an issue reserved to Westminster. Second, the High Court (and Court of Appeal) ruled that normal web browsing is a potentially infringing activity. In the case of newspaper content, the NLA for the rights-holders now require commercial users to obtain a licence — initially for those receiving briefings from monitoring firms, but the ruling covers all commercial use, which includes simply visiting a relevant web page while at even a charitable place of work.
Also, please note that this isn’t about the location of colo servers: the law as interpreted by the courts concerns viewing a web page while in the UK.
The court rulings in question are:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2010/3099.html http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2011/890.html
Disclosure: I’m one of the founders of Cutbot.