Re: Software 'licensing' <RANT>

[cheer@i.hate.spam (Christopher D. Heer)]

PLEASE NOTE:  I am not an attorney.  :)

It was 24 Feb 1997 00:06:22 -0500.  I was reading instead of working.  And Dave 
Althoff <dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us> said:

>Remember how it was in the old days?  You bought a piece of
>software...say, Appleworks, for example.  You have a computer at home; you
>have a computer at work.  You go to work, you stick the AppleWorks disk
>into the drive, you do your AppleWorking.  Great.  Now, it is quitting
>time, so just before you leave, you throw your AppleWorks disks into your
>briefcase and take them home.  Then you can do more AppleWorking on your
>own stuff on your own time on your own computer at home.  And as nearly as
>I can tell, this is perfectly legal.  You bought a copy of the software
>for your use; you have only one copy (unless you count your archival
>backup in your closet), but you use it...the same copy...on both machines.

In other words, it's like a book.  Pretty darned hard to violate the copyright 
of a book by carrying it around, etc.

>Today, things are a bit different.  You have a Wintel machine sitting on
>your desk (the ][e was taken away from you kicking and screaming by the
>Technology Division), and you have a Wintel game machine sitting next to
>your IIgs at home.  But when you bought a word processor for the Wintel
>machine, it came on a CD-ROM and demands 22Mb of disk space for
>installation; installation takes about an hour.

>Now, given that...
>a)  Your office is locked up and vacant when you are not in it, and
>b)  No one is home if you are not there

>It seems obvious to me that you can only use your Gigantic Word Processor
>on one computer at a time.  So why is it not permissible for you to
>install that word processor on both machines?  Just because the program
>now installs on a hard drive, making it possible for two people to use it
>at once, it is no longer OK to use the same program in both places.  You
>must now spend many $$$ in order to be legal about it.

In many cases, it *is* legal to install it in both places.  Last time I checked 
MS's license agreement (which, admittedly, was a couple of years ago), you 
could install Word in both places IF:

	1> You used it primarily on one or the other; in other words,
	   they expected you to keep the usage ratio between work and
	   home to around 80/20 (don't ask me why)

	2> There was no possibility of it being used at the same time
	   in both places

Borland used to have what they called a "like a book" policy.  That is, they 
treated software like a book.  You could install it at work, at home, on your 
laptop, etc., so long as it was never used at the same time on more than one 
machine.  You could even lend it to a friend, so long as (a) you didn't use it 
whilst s/he had it, and (b) s/he stopped using it when you got it back.

The bottom line, I think, is that it really varies.
-- 
          Christopher D. Heer - cheer at us dot oracle dot com
     My opinions are my own and do not reflect those of Oracle Corp.
    SPAMProtect: You'll need to fix my email address before replying.