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From: philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Anti-International Mac Software
Message-ID: <1990Mar8.191013.451@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 8 Mar 90 19:10:13 GMT
Sender: root@Neon.Stanford.EDU (System PRIVILEGED Account)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 53

In response to a posting I made on comp.sys.mac.hardware about transporting
a US Mac SE to Europe, I received the following

> Fact
> Fourth Dimension v. 2.0 is protected, i.e. it will run under an
american version
> of System, but will not run under a norwegian system (or anyother
international
> system version)
>
> Rumored to be protected:
> FoxBase Mac (according to the norwegian distributor)
> QuarkXPress
>
> Some products like TOPS and Adobe Freehand have labeled their
packages: "Not for
> export. For sale in the US only.", but they run over here. There may be other
> hitches for US-only programs, like sort orders in the alphabet (Filemaker).
> Norwegian has extra characters for "ae", "oe", and "eau". German has a
special
> character for the double "s". Other languages have similar problems.

If a company has not taken the trouble to correctly internationalize its
software,
that's one thing. But if it's deliberatelty preventing users from launching the
software except in the country they intended it to be sold in, that's quite
another.

For me, one of the great attractions of the Mac is that I can take it with me
anywhere in the world where there is electricity. I shouldn't have to worry
about whether I have bought the right version of package X (except where this
REALLY makes sense, e.g., a German version of a word processor should have a
different hyphenation algorithm).

It's well known that computer equipment, software etc. is priced differently in
different parts of the world - a practice which is becoming threatened
by the increasing ease of buying by foreign mail order.

I have a few questions:

* Can a representative of the companies producing any of the named products
  comment?
* Assuming there is some legitimate reason for limiting sale of a software
  product geographically, e.g., copyright, why should this prevent someone
  from using that software in a different part of the world (e.g., a professor
  going on sabbatical)? Think of the analogous situation of books which, for
  copyright reasons, are sold in different editions in different parts of the
  world.
* Even if there is such a legitimate reason, should we accept it?


Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu