John McCreesh wrote: > Comments please on http://why.openoffice.org/get_legal.html
a) Even if you know where you obtained your copy from, it might not be enough proof for the SBA that your copy is legal. For example, they used to require that one produce the physical paper receipt for the software, showing when it was purchased. [Purchase orders, checks, and the like were not acceptable. Only original paper receipts were acceptable.] b) Even if the new computer came with the software, that does not mean that the software if legitimate. [Microsoft has claimed that vendors at all tiers are/were installing pirated versions of their products on new systems, and passing them off as legitimate.] c) In the US at least, the SBA is as likely to go after a SOHO, as a Fortune 500 company. [Perhaps more likely. Over a five year period, I received five "amnesty" letters from the SBA, addressed to me personally, in addition to the four or five "amnesty" letters that were addressed to me as my business.][Maybe I should have taken them up on their amnesty offer. I'd just love to see the look on their faces, when they discover that their windows software did not run on any of the computers I had at the time.] d) If you go to the Microsoft website, it has a free program you can download, to determine whether or not your copy of a Microsoft product is legal. If Microsoft wants to sue me for violating the licence of that tool, so be it. [The license prohibits publication of the results of tests that it runs.] My test: 1 copy of Win2K. [Known legit copy] Ran the test three times. On two occasions, their test tool declared this to be pirated. On one occasion it declared it to be legit. 1 copy of MSO97. [Known legit copy] Ran test three times. On two tests it declared it to be legitimate. On one test it declared it to be pirated. xan jonathon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
