Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!caen!uflorida!travis!tom From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Info on Lotus Marketplace Message-ID: Date: 1 Dec 90 01:59:18 GMT References: Sender: news@travis.csd.harris.com Distribution: comp Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Lines: 38 In-reply-to: wex@dali.pws.bull.com's message of 30 Nov 90 16:06:54 GMT wex> Once you're happy with this, you then "buy" the names on the list. wex> Once you've bought it, you can manipulate the "real" data, producing wex> mailing labels, phone lists, reports, etc. You can also export the wex> data as ASCII or other programs' formats. wex> LMB has introduced a really innovative feature in the way you buy wex> lists. Included in LMB is a postage-meter-like counter. It comes wex> loaded with 5000 names. Each time you buy a list, the number of names wex> on that list is subtracted from your meter. Once you've bought a set wex> of names, you own it and can use it as many times as you like. At any wex> time, you can call up Lotus with your credit card or purchase order and wex> get meter increments (at $400/5K names - dirt cheap compared with the wex> per-name costs of standard mailing lists). Ah, with as many hackers as there are out there who passionately hate Lotus, I forsee a big underground research program to break the protection scheme and scatter around millions of copies of programs to "fill your meter" without the formality of a phone call to Lotus and an exchange of cash... Get enough people using pirate meter fillers and Lotus won't make any money on the product. Possibly the best way to kill it off :-). Just what would the legal status of such a program be? It seems to me to fall in the same area as using a pirate satellite decoder, which apparently companies like HBO can successfully prosecute, although I am not sure why after all, I didn't ask them to beam radio signals through my house, what difference should it make if I decode them? (I can see it now, the SETI people pick up a signal, and the next day the interglactic police show up and vaporize the planet because earth didn't get the proper license for their decoder...). -- ====================================================================== domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley uucp: ...!uunet!hcx1!tahorsley 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach, FL 33444 +==== Censorship is the only form of Obscenity ======================+ | (Wait, I forgot government tobacco subsidies...) | +====================================================================+