OK, what if people simply called up the maker of the software, told them how
they got it, etc. and gave them info that they have. Chances are, that
they'll either tell you to do whatever, or they'll be too busy with other
things to care, and just tell you to keep it, etc.
Or, they could tell you just to put it back where you found it, but
you've given it your best.
Tim D. Hotze
-----Original Message-----
From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 12, 1998 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: disk equals license
>John Higginbotham <higginbo_at_netpath.net> wrote:
>>If I then came across a higher version for that
>>product and it was cheaper if you already owned a previous version (say it
>>takes the older version disk to upgrade to newer, then I'd expect to pay
>>the cheaper price, because it is upgrading the program found on my
original
>>set of install disks, that I rightfully own.
>
>You might hope to pay the lower upgrade price, but Autodesk will surely
>tell you that you have someone else's copy, and without a letter of
transfer,
>they won't sell you an upgrade. Or if the copy had already been upgraded,
>they'll transfer you to their anti-piracy department.
>
>>I look at it this way: If someone throws away the disks, they are giving
up
>>their license to use the product.
>
>Not if they upgraded. It may seem ridiculous of me to pretend for the sake
>of argument that these disks came from a dumpster, but that's in fact the
>way a lot of us collectors get our stuff. :-)
>
>>I'm sure any cold blooded lawyer worth his salt could tear down my logic
>>and send me to the big house for having those disks and running them, but
>>how many would take the time, effort and money to try?
>
>That doesn't sit right with me. I don't think I should be able to
>reproduce someone else's software just because they can't catch me.
>If you have that lawyer's phone number, ask about if there are
>any conditions under which copyright can expire apart from the
>mandated number of years of protection.
>
>To help keep this on-topic, I have tried to persuade the UCSD licensing
>department to allow me to reproduce the Terak version of the P-System.
>They did once grant a right to a TI-99 user group to reproduce a
>P-System cartridge. I didn't have much luck because they didn't
>want to offend the current sole non-exclusive license holder, who
>is trying to sell the P-System as an alternative to Java in set-top
>boxes. Good luck, guys. :-)
>
>- John
>Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
>
Received on Thu Feb 12 1998 - 11:00:03 GMT