Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!pshuang From: pshuang@athena.mit.edu (Ping-Shun Huang) Subject: Re: Selling old version of software. In-Reply-To: potelle@MAINE.MAINE.EDU's message of 24 Jun 91 16:27:38 GMT Message-ID: Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology References: Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 21:06:33 GMT Lines: 24 In article potelle@MAINE.MAINE.EDU ("John A. Potelle") writes: > Can anyone comment on the legal problems (if any) of selling old > versions of PC software that is no longer is use, i.e some packages > were upgraded and the older versions are collecting dust. Conceptually, when you bought the first version, you obtained a license to use that version of their software. I think an upgrade (depending on the particular brand of legalese that a company favors) in legal terms modifies that license to the new version, not provide you with another license which is for the new version. So morally (and possibly legally), you probably shouldn't provide the old copy to someone else because they will not "have" a license for running the software. I like the comment someone made about Wordperfect's policy. My high school received several dozen copies of Wordperfect 5.0 licenses donated when the commercial firm upgraded to 5.1, which was nice. Since the schools provide tech support to the students, there's little extra load on WP tech support, and the computer literacy classes were turning out students who are at least a little bit familiar with Wordperfect. -- Above text where applicable is (c) Copyleft 1991, all rights deserved by: UNIX:/etc/ping instantiated (Ping Huang) [INTERNET: pshuang@athena.mit.edu]