[P1] OT: Software Licensing

[david]

On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 04:25  PM, Brian Olesky wrote:

> On 7/9/03 2:27 PM, "Harry D.  Corsover" <harry at corsazzi.com> wrote:
>
>> There is no way
>> that I'm going to buy two copies of an application that only I use.
>
> This was kicked around on the list extensively about 7 or 8 months 
> ago. I
> was as surprised as you were to hear that I was often breaking the law 
> every
> time I put a piece of software on both my notebook and my desktop. Of 
> course
> this hasn't stopped me from doing it, but I was surprised to hear it 
> wasn't
> legit.
>
> But to your point about buying two copies of each piece of software, 
> that's
> not what the companies ask. I believe most companies offer a single 
> user
> license or a multi-user license when you make your purchase. You don't 
> have
> to buy two copies and pay double the price, just buy a multi-user 
> license
> when you first purchase, and then you can load it on several computers
> legitimately.
>
> I've not done this to date, but that's the process. It's even true for
> Jaguar, I believe. You might check the Apple site for details.
>

Brian - Do some research and you'll be as amazed as I've been that you 
assume wrong. First, in many cases installing software on our iBook and 
desktop IS legal. In the past, most software companies HAVE 
accommodated notebook users by allowing them to install the software on 
a desktop and a notebook. Sometimes the license explicitly said this, 
as Microsoft's license does. Sometimes the license simply included 
language stating the software could only be run on one computer at a 
time.

Not all software companies took this attitude though and in some cases 
the reasoning was understandable. CE Software, for example, contends 
that QuicKeys is always running even when the computer is unattended. 
For a time CE Software did, as you suggest, offer a discount for 
additional copies. But no longer. Today the company expects us to buy 
one copy for each computer and their network aware serialization 
enforces this.

Second, what Deneba is doing, and what Adobe has announced it intends 
to do, goes even further. The software requires online activation and 
can be installed on only one computer. Deneba does not offer a discount 
for multiple computer households. Neither does Adobe, Microsoft, or 
Apple (excluding Jaguar) and the teacher special deal for iLife and 
Keynote.

The move toward activation is what concerns me and prompted my posting 
to this list. With home networks and always on internet, it is now 
reasonable and possible for software vendors to restrict their software 
by tying a serial number to a specific computer. As a law abiding 
consumer, this doesn't bother me too much EXCEPT that there really are 
very few vendors who offer home multi-licensing. I live in a 5 computer 
household and I've looked for discounts like this. Oftentimes shareware 
vendors will create such a discount when asked but the big commercial 
vendors mostly don't.


=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Good qualities are easier to destroy than bad ones, and therefore
uniformity is most easily achieved by lowering all standards.
  ~~ Bertrand Russell

David