Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!pyrdc!netxcom!ewiles
From: ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: lotus chairman makes 26 million
Message-ID: <810@netxcom.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 88 13:59:58 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <9360@cisunx.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
Organization: NetExpress Communications, Inc., Vienna, VA
Lines: 44
Summary: Software test driving...

In article <9360@cisunx.UUCP> mike@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Mike  Elliot)
writes:
>In article <807@netxcom.UUCP> ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles) writes:
>>As I see it, the cases are parallel, though different in that the Lotus
>>Chairman could not be described as classically 'bad', as the Sherrif could.
>>(Greedy maybe, but not inherently 'bad'.)
>
>	How do you classify the chairman as bad in any way? He performs his
>	job in such an exemplary fashion, that the company rewards him for
>	it with a large salary. An enviable postion no doubt, but that doesn't
>	make him bad.

There may be some misunderstanding here, I'm not sure.  As the above paragraph
states, I do *not* consider the Lotus Chairman as 'bad'.  Just possibly as
'greedy'.  I know I find many products too expensive, and what I do is to
not buy them.  (As you sugested.)  But the one thing I really dislike about
the current software situation, is that there's no way for me to spend several
months with a product deciding whether it's really worth the several hundred
dollars that the manufacturers are asking for.  (Re: C Compilers...)

It's not an economic justification of the price that I'm looking for.  I'm
quite sure that the manufacturers are capable of producing documents of costs
they incurred that justify the price they ask.  What I'm interested in is if
this product is worth the price *to* *me*.  Which, with something like a
compiler, I'm going to need at least a solid month of working with it before I
can come to a decision.  An expenditure of over $200 for one software product
is a major purchase for me!

The only 'legal' way that I would able to do this sort of testing, would be to
borrow such products from friends for a period of time.  Since they wouldn't
want to be left without their software for an extended period, this would
involve copying.  Understand, I'd only do this to decide which of several
packages did everything I wanted, the way that I wanted.  When I came to a
final decision, which would take some time, I WOULD purchase one of them.
The others would be destroyed.

Is this a 'justifiable' usage of 'copied' software?
Or am I asking for a lawsuit?

-- 
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