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- Message-ID: <9212311355.AA07028@gunter-emh.af.mil>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cdromlan
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 07:55:37 CST
- Sender: "CDROMLAN@IDBSU - Use of CDROM Products in Lan Environments"
- <CDROMLAN@IDBSU.BITNET>
- From: "Gerald A. Smith" <gsmith@GUNTER-EMH.AF.MIL>
- Subject: Re: OED/Licensing
- In-Reply-To: <9212241829.AA20771@gunter-emh.af.mil>; from
- "gregb@AMAZON.SANDIEGO.NCR.COM" at Dec 24, 92 10:32 am
- Lines: 29
-
- I thought I'd throw my 2 cents ($1.98 after inflation) into the foray
- concerninglicensing.
- I agree that it can be expensive. I don't like paying $500 for something I think
- is only worth 1/10th the price. Nonetheless, we have the moral obligation of
- obeying the law and not ripping off the companies that have worked hard to make
- a profit. The per
- son or group that buys one copy of a program, then distributes it to everyone
- else, is breaking the law. There is no rationale for their actions. The
- argument that they are charging too much for their product, so it is
- distributed to save an organization
- money, is lame. That is like purchasing one expensive car (say $50,000) and you
- personally think it is only worth $15,000 so you have your friends drive
- another 2 or 3 off the lot while they aren't looking. It works the same way,
- only it is harder to get
- caught stealing software.
- In fact, if fewer people would steal software, I'm sure the prices would drop.
- It is estimated that there are thousands of illegal copies of Wordperfect,
- Novell, Microsoft and Lotus products made every week! Microsoft recently
- caught a company that
- was illegally making copies of MS-DOS for their machines. It is estimated that
- this company, which sold computers, actually stole hundreds of thousands of
- potential dollars from Microsoft. This could easily cause some smaller
- companies to go out of bu
- siness, or raise their prices.
- So if you are "stealing" products, you are part of the problem, not part of the
- solution.
- Gerald Smith
- gsmith@gunter-emh.af.mil
- h
-