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From: wlhadley@gmuvax.gmu.edu (WILLIAM HADLEY)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: RE: Shrink wrap...still safe?
Message-ID: <0011.9001151235.AA07390@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 12 Jan 90 23:34:00 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

Craig,
   When you buy software in a computer store that is shrink wrapped, it may
not have always stayed in that condition before *you* bought that software.
There are software stores (at least in the Washington, D.C. area) that will
re-shrink wrap software packages when they are returned.  For example, if
someone bought a software package, took it home, and didn't like it.
They could take it to the software store who would take the software back
as long as the software still had the documentation AND the registration
card.  They would take the software and offer an exchange or refund and send
the customer on his/her way.  Then the store would take the software into
the backroom and procede to re-shrink wrap the software and put it back on
the shelf.  I (as the customer) had an experience like this.  I returned a
piece of software that I was not what I thought.  The store I bought it from
was more than happy to assist me (keep the customer happy).  They asked if
everything that came in the box was there, which of course it was.  Then the
sales clerk SPECIFICALLY asked me if the registration card was in the box.
Again, I assured him that everything was there.  He explained that he had to
ask about that because they were going to put it back on the shelf and re-sell
the package.  I asked if he could sell it without the shrink wrap on the box,
to which he replied, "Nah, we have a shrink wrap machine in back" (not
necessarily a direct quote).  I thought about that, about specifically asking
for the registration card.  I could have pirated the software and sent in the
card as though I *actually* paid for it.   But then  I thought a little bit
more about the whole transaction.  The clerk never looked in the box when I
was standing there to see if everything was in it.  After refunding my money,
he took the box in back, wrapped it, and brought it back before I left the
store.  He could have looked while he was in back, but I don't think he did
because he was not gone for very long.  Also, he never asked to see a sales
recipt.  There was no price tag on the box (it was shrink wrapped when I bought
it and the tag was stuck to the wrapping which I threw away) so he wouldn't
have known for sure if I even bought it at his store - if I bought it at all.
I could have stolen the software, pirated it and get *my* money back.  Or I
could have stolen the software, INFECTED it, and then get *my* money back.
The store and the software company would have never known - neither would the
unsuspecting customer who might have bought that software.

**JUST FOR THE RECORD**
I *did* pay for it, and I *did* have my sales recipt with me when I returned
the software.  I was *not* satisfied with the program.  And, I did *not*
pirate it and did *not* infect it with anything.