Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!nocsun.NOC.Vitalink.COM!dumbcat!marc From: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Any piracy statistics in the US ?? Message-ID: <1068@dumbcat.sf.ca.us> Date: 25 Jun 91 06:02:46 GMT References: <292@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> Organization: MH Software, Hayward, CA. Lines: 30 In article mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a *HUG*) writes: > will@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp (will) writes: > > Getting in on this a little late. But isn't it possible to program > > your software to read the serial numbers on the say (CPU and/or FPU) > > before the software will function. Then all you need to do is require > > the purchaser to do is give his/her serial numbers when purchasing the > > software and everyones happy. > > Except, of course, those people who have a network of fifty machines, any > one of which they might want to run their legally-owned software on. So what. This is done. Purchase of any of the Sun based cross compiler/assembler tools from Microtek and you had (don't know if they still do it) to give them the hostid of the machine it would run on. At a place I used to work we bought two copies (licensed for different machines) so we wouldn't be at the mercy of broken hardware. If anyone other than the prime user wanted to run the software s/he had to rlogin/rsh/telnet/whatever into one of the licensed machines. As others pointed out, you are licensing the package, not buying it. BTW: I was against this package because of the use restriction. However, it did meet all technical requirements and their legal staff could agree with our legal staff on license terms, etc. Gack, I'll never work for a company where the lawyers are that powerful again. // marc -- // home: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us pacbell!dumbcat!marc // work: marc@ascend.com uunet!aria!marc