[Coco] New Copyright decision

[Brett Gordon]

It sounds like ELUA's will be taken more serious.  I'm usually in favor of
private contract being honored by both parties (the software seller and the
"end user")  And keeping the government out of interpreting things such as
"fair use", etc...  Uphold the contract!   I think it much clearer (and
keeps the legislator/and judicial system out of telling us what we can agree
on)

BUT:  how many ELUA's are actually published to the point where you can
inspect the offered terms of a product you think you're "buying"?   A
contract (ELUA) is worthless unless it is agreed upon by both parties, and
consideration paid.  AKA, is there really a "meeting of the minds"
when "buying" software?

I remember a time (as most of you prolly do) when there was NO WAY a
retailer would let you return an open software title.  I never really
thought this was fair.  I actually used to read ELUA's, and thought "Will I
get my money back if I don't accept this contract?"

I remember I asked these questions about 10-15 years ago when buying
software for my company.  The saleman was quite impressed (and largely
unoffended) when I asked whether I was going to "own" the software I was
buying (or the data created with it),  could I make backups?  Did I own the
database and information created? etc.....

I guess, we wouldn't need "fair use" if (1) everybody read (and understood)
ELUA's, (2) end users could honostly agree to the terms prior to purchase
(or the escrow of the purchase), and (3) there was enough competition to
have multiple types of ELUA's to choose from.  (4) the patent laws weren't
so stupid.  "Gee, I'd love to sell you a similar product for less, but XXX
company ownes the patent on adding numbers together using a lookup table"

I have no love of crappy software companies: "Quicken" for instance: they
"rent" software to you without a honest ELUA diclosure. They have misleading
sales practices: there box says it does things it doesn't.  Then they
have nonstop pop-up windows reselling of the product, and other quicken
products.  "Gee! I thought I already bought this product?  Why are they
still selling it to me?"

On 9/20/10, Bruce W. Calkins <brucewcalkins at charter.net> wrote:
>
> http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=1813&tag=nl.e101
>
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-- 
Brett M. Gordon,
beretta42 at gmail.com