Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!midway!midway.uchicago.edu!francis From: francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: All Commercial Software Developers or Companies (pls read) Message-ID: Date: 25 Jun 91 04:02:33 GMT References: <25733@unix.SRI.COM> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress) Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago Lines: 58 In-Reply-To: mxmora@unix.SRI.COM's message of 24 Jun 91 19: 17:44 GMT In article <25733@unix.SRI.COM> mxmora@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora) writes: >In article <56971@nigel.ee.udel.edu> johnston@minnie.me.udel.edu (Bill Johnston) writes: >>From the description offered by Mr. Mora, SPAudit seems to be software >>tool designed to facilitate corporate software-witch-hunts. In other [...] >That is up to the company and not to SPA. Why do you believe you can wash your hands of how your creation is used? That's like a weapons merchant not caring that his sales kill people. >The way SPA is told about a company using illegal software is mostly from >disgruntled employees finking on there previous employers. Wait a minute. Who authorized the SPA to enforce the copyright laws? [...] >The fee is the suggested retail price of the software product * the number >found. Also the cost of the product again if they want to keep it. And who authorized them to collect fees? >Lets say a company bought 10 copies of Disk Doubler but is using it on 100 >machines. Spaudit finds the 100 copies and the company can only prove they >bought 10. 90 unlicensed copies * $69.96 = $6295.50. That would be the Why should the company have to prove that they're innocent? >>2) He didn't offer to buy a work-copy of WriteNow for the office >>heretic who doesn't like MS Word. (They won't even listen to his >>protest that he bought the software himself; it's NOT ON THE LIST!) >Our Auditors at SRI will take any of the three forms of proof-of-purchase. >Orignal disk(s),Original Manual(s) or a purchase order/petty cash receipt. >Any of the three qualify as proof. Again, why is it up to you to demand proof? >If the company policy is to use word then the office heretic should >use word or find other employment. Again this has nothing to do with Spaudit. Oh, come on! It's not like it makes a lot of difference to the company (provided, of course, that the heretic converts his files to Word when he gives or shares them). It's an irrational policy, like telling the employees they have to use pens rather than pencils when writing on paper (worse than that, because you can't convert pencil to pen), and you're making it easier for the company to hang on to it. -- /============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9? | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | --Ultimate Question | \============================================================================/