[X4U] Boot Camp [A]

[Randy B.Singer]

Randy B.Singer said:

>>The title "Original Equipment Manufacturer" does not make a contract  
>>between you & Microsoft, prohibiting you as an end-user from  
>>installing the OEM version.
>
>
>The title "OEM version" puts a purchaser on notice that this isn't a 
>retail version of the software.  If a user purchases an OEM version of 
>software from another party, not the OEM, they do so at their own peril 
>if they don't investigate the license that that software came with.


Let me further explain why this is so.  When you are purchasing software 
you are not actually purchasing a product.  You are purchasing a license. 
 That is, you are purchasing the right to use the intellectual property 
of another.  You aren't purchasing anything tangible.  (The disk itself 
is sort of peripheral and almost inconsequential.)

If the holder of the intellectual property isn't somehow a party to the 
transaction (i.e. the sale of the software that you are looking to buy), 
you may have purchased nothing at all.  Unless a third party has an 
explicit agreement with the owner of the intellectual property rights to 
the software to resell access to that intellectual property, then they 
*don't* have the right to sell that software.

An example: 

I own some land.  I sell someone the right to an easement over the land.  
That is, I've sold that person the right to walk over the land to get to 
work every day.

Unless I've also sold that person an explicit right to sell additional 
easements over my property, that person has no right to go to a third 
party and sell them the right to walk over my property.  

I still own the land, and all rights associated with it. Unless 
explicitly granted by me, the person who I sold the easement to can walk 
across the land to go to work everyday, and *that's it*.  He has no other 
rights with respect to my land, including the right to allow other people 
to use my land.

So it is with a software license.  If you buy a certain number of 
licences from Microsoft to use their software, you can't resell those 
licenses unless Microsoft explicitly gives you the right to.





Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

MACINTOSH OS X ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html