disk equals license - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

12 Feb 1998

OK, what if people simply called up the maker of the software, told them how
they got it, etc. and gave them info that they have.  Chances are, that
they'll either tell you to do whatever, or they'll be too busy with other
things to care, and just tell you to keep it, etc.
    Or, they could tell you just to put it back where you found it, but
you've given it your best.
Tim D. Hotze
-----Original Message-----
From: John Foust &lt;jfoust(a)threedee.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Thursday, February 12, 1998 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: disk equals license

...
 John Higginbotham &lt;higginbo(a)netpath.net&gt; wrote:
>If I then came across a higher version for that
>product and it was cheaper if you already owned a previous version (say it
>takes the older version disk to upgrade to newer, then I'd expect to pay
>the cheaper price, because it is upgrading the program found on my original
...
  set of install
disks, that I rightfully own. 
You might hope to pay the lower upgrade price, but Autodesk will surely
tell you that you have someone else's copy, and without a letter of transfer,
...
 they won't sell you an upgrade.  Or if the copy had
already been upgraded,
they'll transfer you to their anti-piracy department.

>I look at it this way: If someone throws away the disks, they are giving up
...
  their license
to use the product. 
Not if they upgraded.  It may seem ridiculous of me to pretend for the sake
of argument that these disks came from a dumpster, but that's in fact the
way a lot of us collectors get our stuff.  :-)

 I'm sure any cold blooded lawyer worth his
salt could tear down my logic
and send me to the big house for having those disks and running them, but
how many would take the time, effort and money to try? 
That doesn't sit right with me.  I don't think I should be able to
reproduce someone else's software just because they can't catch me.
If you have that lawyer's phone number, ask about if there are
any conditions under which copyright can expire apart from the
mandated number of years of protection.

To help keep this on-topic, I have tried to persuade the UCSD licensing
department to allow me to reproduce the Terak version of the P-System.
They did once grant a right to a TI-99 user group to reproduce a
P-System cartridge.  I didn't have much luck because they didn't
want to offend the current sole non-exclusive license holder, who
is trying to sell the P-System as an alternative to Java in set-top
boxes.  Good luck, guys.  :-)

- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>