Thom Baguley wrote:
>
> Robert J. MacG. Dawson wrote:
>
> > dennis roberts wrote:
> > >
> > > robert ... i disagree ... now, if minitab will reimburse him for NOT
> > > selling them ... that is a different story ... but, if they won't AND he
> > > has not USED the project ... i see nothing to prevent him from obtaining a
> > > return on his investment ...
> >
> > Just the wording of the contract...and there _are_ plenty of precedents
> > for those.
> >
> > For example, if you decide you don't need your fire insurance policy,
> > I just bet you cannot legally transfer it to somebody else. (Go on,
> > phone your insurance company and ask...)
>
> I think you are assuming that the contract is legally enforceable (a moot point in
> the US as it is unlikely that most individuals could afford to go to court over
> it) and that US law applies.
Well, yes, I am assuming that it's enforceable. Any evidence that it
isn't, apart
from the fact that a lot of people would _like_ it not to be? Myself
included, but cussing at a busted straight won't fill it.
I'm not assuming that US law applies, though - except in the US, where
I understand it does, mostly anyhow. Typically a software package sold
outside the US has a locally-valid license agreement, and often
includes an agreement not to resell outside that licensing domain.
> > Courts in many places have determined that artists have surprisingly
> > strong rights over their work after sale, including a strong but
> > nonabsolute right to keep works such as murals onthe intended site.
>
> Only in the US as far as I know.
Actually, I think the model for US law here is the French _droit_moral_
which has largely been accepted into EU law. Canada and the US have, if
I understand correctly, weaker versions than apply in Europe, developed
over the last ten or twenty years. France has had it since Napoleon.
> I'm not a lawyer,
I never accused you of that <grin>
> but in UK law most software contracts contain elements that
> might be hard to enforce (particularly if a jury felt they were unreasonable).
A jury is capable of deciding anything, and in criminal law they may
actually get away with it in the case of an acquittal. In civil law a
perverse decision could be appealed to a higher level by either party -
and probably would be if the losing side had deep pockets.
After ten years of these surreal contracts, *has* any court in any
major jurisdiction actually overturned any of the major provisions?
BTW: You think that contract is bad (not that it isn't)? Some of the
early microprocessor compilers for Pascal and C had sales contracts
giving the company the right to a 10% royalty on all commercially-sold
software compiled using the product. Borland's Turbo Pascal was one of
the first _not_ to do so.
-Robert Dawson
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