disk equals license

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Thu Feb 12 13:26:55 1998

At 11:44 AM 2/12/98, you wrote:
>;-) Clearing the snow from my glasses, I saw John Foust typed:
>>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.
>
>Yes, but to own a version upgrade versus an actual standalone product, you
>*must* keep the original version. If you own V9, and upgrade to
>V10/11/12/13/14 on that basis, you cannot toss your V9 media -- or you are
>chucking the license that allows you to own just the upgrade and not the
>real thing.
>
>Methinks Autodesk's anti-piracy department would set up a conference call
>between them, you and the folks who threw away the older media, because the
>company doing the pitching is wrong as well, for without proof of the
>original, they have essentially pirated the upgrade version.
>
>>>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. :-)
>
>You're both right, in a way.
>
>John H.: Chuck the disks, give up license. Yup.
>John F.: The upgrade disks require a license to previous software -- you
>now essentially have two linked licenses - you cannot legally give up 1/2
>of that license, so: "Don't throw the original media away." - to do so
>could be asking for trouble.
>
>So here's a question: Let's say you find dox & stuff for Lotus V.2 in the
>dumpster, but with only the original disk 1 of the 3-disk set (IIRC). Do
>you in fact have the license, or not. Is the license bound to *all* of the
>media?

  When I did software audits, they had to have the complete set of disks.
Also if they had an upgrade they had to have the original disk for the
upgrade lincense ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^ "ownership" to be valid. (I don't like
the term license. A license is different from legal ownership of a software
package. Just like a driver's license is different from legal ownership of
a car.) If someone threw out their original disks and keep only the upgrade
disks, they were throwing out their ownership of that SW package. If
someone else found and keep the original set of disks, then he became the
owner of that SW. But only the version that was on the disks). In this
case, the original owner had no right to continue to use the software even
if he still had the upgrade disk!

   And yes, we have talked to lawyers about this, at LOT of them! We have
also talked to ASP (not SPA!) about it.

   Joe

>
>If this is the case, then that version of Autocad cannot be split. To xfer
>the license, you need to xfer *all* the media involved - to throw away half
>would be wrong, the way it seems to me.
>
>Just my $0.00000000002 (that's what it's worth, anyway... ;-)
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>--
>Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
>Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
>zmerch_at_northernway.net | be your first career choice.
>
Received on Thu Feb 12 1998 - 13:26:55 GMT