Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!yale!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!utoday!greenber From: greenber@utoday.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Paying for Shareware (Was: Re: v09i070: newsclip 1.1...) Message-ID: <1237@utoday.UUCP> Date: 12 Feb 90 04:30:50 GMT References: <1201@utoday.UUCP> <13946@s.ms.uky.edu> <1212@utoday.UUCP> <1990Feb8.140220.6168@pegasus.uucp> <1233@utoday.UUCP> <10807@zodiac.ADS.COM> <14108@s.ms.uky.edu> Reply-To: greenber@utoday.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg) Organization: UNIX Today!, Manhasset, NY Lines: 36 In article <14108@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: > >It's very doubtful that you are legally responsible for following those >conditions. Wonder why software vendors won't prosecute for violation of >a shrink wrap license? It's because they have every reason to fear that they >will lose, and set a precedent. No, it's because we have never been able to track someone down, it would cost too much money to sue (tens of thousands, actually) and people too unethical to register for their usage of someone else's intellectual property probably don;t have deep enough pockets to go after. > >I don't like being told that I'm bound by a contract that I never signed. >Opening a shrink wrap or downloading software proably does not constitute >a valid agreement. For almost anything like that to be legal, it requires >a signature or at least some overt paperwork with the author (as in checking >"yes" on a subscription offer). > Balderdash, Sean. Whethr you like it or not, you are bound by certain laws: try selling copies of Lotus 123. Give those folks up at Cambridge adequate notice. You'll be sued forcopyright infringment. And you never signed anything. Tell it to the judge. By the way: checking `yes' as an overt move on a subscription blank is so that you can be counted as a subscriber before payment for the advertisers. -- Ross M. Greenberg, Technology Editor, UNIX Today! greenber@utoday.UUCP 594 Third Avenue, New York, New York, 10016 Voice:(212)-889-6431 BIX: greenber MCI: greenber CIS: 72461,3212 To subscribe, send mail to circ@utoday.UUCP with "Subject: Request"