----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 12:05 AM Subject: Re: [ql-users] SMSQ/E license criticisms
> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Phoebus Dokos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes <snip> > >>No-one can legally sell a copy of Windoze for instance > >>unless they are a licensed M$ distributor and these distributors pass > >>the goods on to the shops and other outlets. > > > >That's not true even if M$ wants you to think so... Dave is absolutely > >right when he says that this approach is ILLEGAL totally... however for > >the reasons I explained to my previous email it is not illegal in our > >case. To further explain: If you prohibit ANYONE to sell an original > >version of SMSQ/E then no one would be able to sell their second-hand > >software for example. I would have to come to you or Jochen give you my > >SMSQ/E that I didn't want any more for this or the other reason and > >then wait until you sold it!. As you can see this is not only illegal > >but impractical as well :-) > But that is actually the case if you click the 'accept' box in Windoze. > You are not legally entitled to sell your copy of Windoze 98 on to > another user even if you have stopped using it yourself. It is all there > in the small print that no-one reads but every one, including the > pirates, agrees to. But in English law, at least, there is something called an "unfair term of contract", which, means that when you accept the conditions of a contact, you are not LEGALLY bound by any of them that are "unreasonable" or "unfair". It is just as nonsensical as my buying a car from someone and not being allowed to drive it by the contract terms (or, indeed to sell it to someone else). If any legal system doesn't have such a an all-embracing overriding principle then I don't have much hope for it as a legal system. I bet if M$ ever tested this in an English court case they'd be shot down in seconds, now matter how many millions of dollars they was prepared to spend (but if I was the judge I'd make sure they had to spend them before they lost!!!) <snip> -- Peter S Tillier [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employer. Peter S Tillier [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.
