Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a *HUG*) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Any piracy statistics in the US ?? Message-ID: Date: 25 Jun 91 13:19:02 GMT References: <1991Jun24.205146.3372@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK. Lines: 36 chappell@symcom (Glenn Chappell) writes: > In article mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a * > >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 on > >of which they might want to run their legally-owned software on. [...] > Most software companies do not actually sell their software, but rather > licenses to use their software (read the fine print). The "fine print" is not legally binding in the UK. I actually own the software I have bought, regardless of what any shrink-wrap license may say. Of course, the situation may be different wherever you live. > A typical (micro) software license is single user/single machine. For setups > where programs are run off servers (or whatever) there are usually "site > licenses" available, which cost more, but allow the software to be run > legally on multiple machines. I'm not talking about putting the software on a server and running it on multiple machines. I'm talking about physically carrying my one original system disk with me, and using it in whichever machine I happen to be sitting in front of. Only one copy of the program is ever being run, and it is only ever being run on one machine; it's just that the matter of which machine that is might change a lot. mathew