30 May
1999
30 May
'99
8:15 a.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
If I buy a computer w/ a hard drive, what ever data it might contain is mine also.
The seller is/was responsable for the data on there, not the buyer. the seller
should've deleted what he thought was sensitive information. Unless the data is
copyrighted, I have every right to do as i please with it, which would most likely be
erasure.
I wasn't following this thread but here's my opinion.
A buy a house and everything it contains. There just happenes to be a treasure
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There's the first difference. In most cases you're _not_ buying a computer
and all the data on the hard drive.
If I buy a computer and the seller says 'Here's the master disks for all
the software I installed, and here are the licenses which I'll help you
to transfer to your name', then I think it's reasonable to assume that
you're getting that software as well. If he says 'BTW, I've left the
source code to a <whatever> that I was working on on the hard disk,
please take a look' then, again, I have no problem in reading said source
code.
THat is _not_ what we're talking about.
I wasn't talking about morals. I'd probably find the previous owner and give it
to
them, if they wanted it. otherwise I'd trash it. I have no use for old letters and
bank statements....
map in there leading me to a pot of gold. who
owns the gold? ME.
Suppose you buy a house+contents. Stuffed down the back of a chair are
some old personal letters, bank statements, etc. Do you really think you
have the moral right to publish them? I certainly don't.
I must admit that if I bought a computer and found some previous repaired
had left the schematics or a diagnostic module inside, I might be tempted
to keep them and make use of them. That's a far cry from personal data,
though.
There have been many books published from people's personal data... diaries, love
letters, ect.. especially items found on/around important dates and events.
Letters/ pictures/diaries from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW, WWII, ect...
sketches and drawings for some wacky invention..... all of these things were , at
one time by someone, considered personal data. many times we learn from them. Do
you think these people would have wanted their data published by some person who just
happened to find it in an attic, in a house he just bought? probably not, but
historically they're priceless.