RE: Piracy, education and the techie garage sale

["John Locke" <mail -at- freelock -dot- com>]

jarnopol writes
>
> The point isn't whether or not any of the scenarios you referred to are
> "right" or "wrong".  As long as you are in violation of the
> license agreement,
> you are "wrong".  end of story, imo.
>

to which I add: have you read your license agreement? They generally spell
out, in complete legaleze detail, exactly what you can and cannot do with
the software, and which offspring you have to give up for the privilege.

Didn't think so. Interesting that even tech writers don't read those stupid
things.

Well, all of them I've attempted to read seem to indicate that transfer of
license and software to another person, with or without compensation, is
completely legal.

Many software packages may be legally installed on a second computer, such
as a laptop or home computer, as long as that computer is only used by the
primary license holder, and nobody uses the other computer at the same time.
Software with such licenses include: MS Office, Visio, Photoshop, and many
other business applications.

Other software (especially operating systems and hardware drivers) may only
be installed on a single system.

Almost no software allows you and your spouse to legally use a single
license for software on two machines simultaneously.

Sure, we all bend the rules a little now and then. My criteria is that I
make sure I have a legal right to use any software I use to produce work,
whether I buy it directly, or one of my clients extends their license to
cover me.

John Locke
http://www.freelock.com