Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!sun!burgundy!jborza
From: jborza%burgundy@Sun.COM (Jim_Borza)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Ethics of crippler circuitry
Summary: Well....
Message-ID: <89703@sun.uucp>
Date: 14 Feb 89 17:44:51 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <11630010@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> <1257@raspail.UUCP> <132@aucis.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 37

In article <132@aucis.UUCP>, bnick@aucis.UUCP (Bill Nickless) writes:
> What do the companies (Amdahl, IBM, et. al.) do about the "sneaky" computer
> operator who figures out that you remove board X and get Y*1.5 performance?
> Or if you flip this switch or comment out this code or patch the OS to allow
> more than the licensed number of users on?  
> 
> How does that concept of "I've bought it, it's mine" apply here?  Is it 
> unethical to get the best performance possible out of a machine you've paid
> for, even if the manufacturer didn't intend for that performance to be avail-
> able?
> 
> If a vendor is going to sell me a computer, I would use it to its best 
> performance--regardless of what the vendor intends!
> -- 
> Bill Nickless                   Andrews University Computer Science Department
> ...!sharkey!aucis!bnick or bnick@aucis.UUCP                 Unix Support Group

If you bought on performance specs, the manufacturer has no absolute obli-
gation to support the machine's performance beyond the specs you purchased.
In the case of the 'license' mentioned above: that implies a contract be-
tween the purchaser and manufacturer (or seller).  There's some sticky
ground here which I'm sure you'll appreciate.
As to the "I've bought it....etc" argument:  If *YOU* bought it, you'll have
to decide how to apply your ethics but if you're acting as an employee or
agent of the person or corporation who really bought it, your obligation is
to protect their interests, even if it means leaving the machine "crippled".
The "sneaky" operator who boosts the speed beyond what was intended would
risk the manufacturer saying: "We won't repair/support this gear any more
since unauthorized modifications have been made...".  They'd then charge
either for the increased specs or for "crippling" it again.  All in all,
in our society, contracts rule the game (implied and written).  Ethics,
unfortunately, have very little to do with behavior any more.



Jim Borza - Sun Microsystems
Disclaimer?  Sure, why not?