] [Thread] [Date] [Author]

["dave lowen" <jatech(--nospam--at)kwic.com>]

How it looks to me.

The big 3 stop selling cars. They now sell licenses to drive their cars.

You may drive the car forever but you will never own it. You can't sell it,
you can't even give it away. You could give it back but you won't get your
money back.

In addition to your initial fee, you must pay an annual maintenance fee. You
may get nothing in return for your annual fee.

Your car may not work properly; it may not work at all. It could even have
potentially dangerous problems but that's OK. There really isn't anyone
around to insist that the manufacturers lease you something that works. If
your car is recalled for major modifications, you have to pay for it or do
without.

When your car is of little use to you anymore, you cannot trade it in. you
must keep it and start again from the beginning.

And now a gag order included with your license???

Nice work if you can get it!

Regards,
Dave Lowen


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Maxwell [mailto:smaxwell(--nospam--at)engin.umich.edu] 
Sent: September 30, 2005 3:49 PM
To: seaint(--nospam--at)seaint.org
Subject: Re: ENERCALC

And the thing that you don't mention is that many software companies are
now writing into their EULAs that users cannot publish/write reviews of
software without obtaining permission from the software publisher.  I
honestly don't know if such provisions are enforcable or not, but I would
hope not.

And don't get me started on "dongles".  I have serious problems with being
treated like a criminal when I honestly pay for something.  I understand
that companies must protect their software from piracy, but some of the
policies that accompany the use of "dongles" are objectionable at best
(i.e. companies that make you buy the program AGAIN if you lose your
"dongle", which happens to be the size of a quarter or so [at least
today's USB dongles] and can EASILY get lost)...especially when there are
other methods to slow down potetnial pirates (NO method will prevent
piracy...if someone wants your softtare bad enough, they will get
it...dongle or not).

And while I am ALL for shameless Mac plugs (life would be so much better
if I could dump these frackin' Windoze machines), the fact is that Apple
to some degree is no much better than other software companies, like it or
not.  Personally, I feel that they are much more creative and better at
programming than Microsoft, but they "bloat" stuff and "tie" stuff just
like M$ (I wanted to put QuickTime on my Windoze box, but could only
download it and install it WITH iTunes...and I don't want iTunes on that
machine...it might interfere with my other CD/DVD burning software).
While I like Apple _MUCH_ better than Micro$oft, they ain't perfect little
saints.  After all, they charge me $130 for a .x revision of their OS
(i.e. when they go from 10.3 to 10.4).  So, they are driven by their
bottomline as well.

Scott
Adrian, MI




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