Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari!otc!metro!basser!usage!ccadfa!anucsd!arp!atf
From: atf@arp (Andre Fuhrmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Registered Users
Summary: Same problem in Oz
Keywords: free software, registered users
Message-ID: <607@arp.anu.oz>
Date: 2 Nov 88 08:04:09 GMT
References: <1036@fai.UUCP>
Organization: Automated Reasoning Project, ANU, Canberra, Australia
Lines: 49

In article <1036@fai.UUCP>, dalea@fai.UUCP (Dale M. Arends) writes:
> Here is an interesting situation.  When I purchased my hard disk from
> Jasmine, it came with the Symantec Utilities for the Macintosh (SUM) 
> on it.  This was not a surprise since they advertise the fact.  However,
> according to Symantec, that does NOT make me a valid user/owner of the
> software and, thus, cannot be a registered owner unless I purchase 
> another copy of the package.
> 
> The situation then arises concerning upgrades and technical support.
> In short, unless they are distributed via public facilities (Usenet,
> CI$, Genie, etc.) I am not notified nor eligible to receive them.
> 
> I can understand the situation, but I have a hard time justifying my
> having to pay for a second copy of software I obtained legally in the 
> first place simply to be allowed to get support and upgrade notices.

Same here.  But in contrast to Dale, I can't understand the
situation -- I'm downright ANGRY.  I bought my Jasmine HD partly because
SUM (and more) was bundled with it.  Of course, I gathered from their
advertisements that by buying the HD, I would become a licensed user of
the SUM package.  As it turns out, Jasmine's advertisements are *grossly
misleading*, to say the very least.

How I found out?  Well, two floppies came together with the HD.  After
cursory inspection, I assumed that they contained the Jasmine Drive
Tools and SUM.  Thus, when I reformatted the HD, I made no backup of
SUM since I thought I already had one.  Only after reformatting I
realised that I had only a *partial* copy of SUM: the Symantec Tools
were only on the HD, not on one of the two floppies that came with it.

When I rang the Australian distributor of SUM and Jasmine, Symbiotics
in Melbourne, they didn't categorically refuse to replace the
inadvertently trashed piece of SUM but they made a very strange offer:
I should send in my HD and pay $65 and then they would copy the missing
Tools onto my HD.  Apart from the fact that my HD is on the way to
Germany, I would have said "No, thanks(?)" anyway.

I have no complaints about my Jasmine HD so far - it works fine.  But I
don't like to buy from people who fool their customers.  In the future
I'll look at Jasmine's offers with a good portion of distrust: they'll
have to do a bit more than the ordinary to convince me that I should buy
another of their products.

By the way, anyone out there who feels an urge to send me the Symantec
Tools component of SUM?  (I still feel bloody well entitled to them.)

Andre Fuhrmann
Automated Reasoning Project, Australian National University, 
GPO Box 4, ACT 2601, Australia.           atf@arp.anu.oz.au