Yes, and no user agreement will protect you from said behavior. Courts however will. Are you sure that your schools will loose significant enrollment if a school system in another country uses your software? If not, why do you care? I am against any form of stealing, but your example seems only to effect your ego (not your market). Again, this example has nothing to do with user agreements.
-----Original Message----- From: "Richmond Mathewson" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: 3/21/2009 6:13 AM Subject: illegal creaticity? Unlike Brian Yennie most of my work is, by most people's standards, 'tinkering around', at least insofar as I develo educational software to be deployed over 4 computers !!!! However, from time to time, 'potential parents' turn up at my little language school; after a while it becomes clear that they are far more interested in my programs than either my school or my teaching methods. They eventually get round to asking if I can sell them a CD or 2 with Windows versions of my programs. Lying, I tell them that I am unable to produce programs for Windows. Why? Because in Bulgaria, where "software pirate" is synonymous with "saint" I know that copies of my programs would be round the town, and the country, quicker than you can say "Georgi Parvanov" (the 'socialist' President). Now, why should I worry about that? Because my programs are "quite valuable and relevant" to my business; and in a country where legal protection seems only to be available to the Mafia (a word which is often, if not always, synonymous for Big Business) I "keep my a** covered". An owner of a large EFL chain of schools in Bulgaria offered me a sum which I calculated to be what a class of 20 children make in 2 weeks for my programs; that would give me a fortnight's income and reduce the attraction of my school down to about 30% of what it is now - suicide for a fast buck! I don't pretend to understand business; but I do understand Darwin's theory of evolution, and I do understand cannibalism. While both Darwin's theory and cannibalism may not apply to how we got here (c.f. Douglas Adams' theory) they certainly seem to apply to how businesses function. It is also sometimes the case that humans will destroy other humans not because there is real competition, but because there is a perceived encroachment onto territory already occupied, or onto territory that has been ear-marked for occupation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Having said that . . . part of me says "go and kick sand in the faces of the bullies" :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sincerely, Richmond Mathewson. ____________________________________________________________ A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development Life Cycle_______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
