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From: laird@chinet.chi.il.us (Laird J. Heal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Apple's Licence
Message-ID: <1991Apr29.080505.3367@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 29 Apr 91 08:05:05 GMT
References: <1991Apr28.030649.25860@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 29

In article <1991Apr28.030649.25860@neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@pescadero.stanford.edu (Philip Machanick) writes:
>
>  IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENCE, PROMPTLY RETURN THE
>  UNUSED SOFTWARE TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU OBTAINED IT AND YOUR MONEY WILL
>  BE REFUNDED.
>
>What a nice deal. I wish I had seen this earlier. My copy of the system
>software was bundled with a Mac, for which I paid $1500.

This is the problem with such shrink-wrapped licenses, and the reason that
they are so typically difficult to enforce.  Any company proclaiming such
a license so baldly has something stuck somewhere - and since almost every
company fits both categories, we are stuck somewhere too.

The Federal law of Copyright assures the rightful possessor of software
his rights, which state laws may not modify except as to define rightful
possession.  A shrink-wrapped "contract" can only be enforced as a state
legal matter, and Vault v. Quaid went a long way to stating that what you
get is yours to mangle, or at least freely diassociate.  The upshot is
to follow the Federal Copyright Act (you can quote the latest version
verbatim, right?) _or_ if you really want your money back, take them at
their word and return the merchandise.  Maybe if enough people do that
the license will change, but personally I bought the computer for its
own use, not for the license terms.  When you go to the store and buy
the computer the salesperson does not ask if you are going to build a
nuclear bomb with it - they ask if you can type and point.
-- 
Laird J. Heal                           The Usenet is dead!
Here:  laird@chinet.chi.il.us		Long live the Usenet!