[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I have been using OpenOffice for a couple years now, and truly love it. It > is a great replacement for ms Office, and I am delighted to find things I > need in the menus listings where I expect them to be. > > As happy as I am with your product, I am still a very curious sort of person > and am interested in trying other things, so I purchased a product recently > called "Perfect Pro Office System 2007". On the box, they mention the names > of the office compatible software in their package: Write, Calc, Impress, > etc. Sound familiar? Naturally, I searched over the entire box very > carefully, > and OpenOffice.org was never mentioned. It irked me that they used the same > names as you guys do, but then I guessed that products which are available > freely on the web according to a general public license probably do not > copyright the product names. > > Despite my concern about the identical names, I attempted to install the > office component of the package. Imagine my surprise when nothing seemed to > happen. I then opened the CD and discovered, much to my dismay, that > "Perfect > Pro Office" IS OpenOffice.org with the addition of a couple new goodies. > Aren't the people at Cosmi required to mention on the package that they are > actually supplying OpenOffice.org under their own banner? The name is > mentioned > absolutely NOWHERE on the package or inside the box either, for that matter. > > Can they do that? Clearly the implication is that the software inside the > box is THEIR material when, in fact, it is not their property. If this is > not > illegal, it is certainly unethical. > > It does lead to an interesting question: Since Cosmi is selling > OpenOffice.org under their own banner, should we expect them to support the > product in > the future with updates to the community at large? And second, is there > something that can be done to protest this clear abuse of the general public > license, to force Cosmi to acknowledge this fact? (There is a new version > of the > software on the shelves at Fry's Electronics, and I don't believe that the > new > package made any mention of the use of OpenOffice.org either.) > > I guess what bothers me most about this is that Cosmi is clearly making > money off of the fact that they are "selling" an MS Office compatible > product, as > that is the product stressed most on the package (the items are highlighted > in red on the back of the box). The box is typical of modern software > distributions with a fold-open cover. Inside the cover it says, "With > Perfect Pro > Office System(tm) you will create professional-looking business documents, > instant databases, eye-catching presentations, full-featured > spreadsheets...even make, edit or enhance your own images!" But in fact, > they are simply > describing OpenOffice.org in all of the descriptions that follow. So how > much > work did Cosmi actually perform in developing the products on the 4 CD's > inside > their box? > >
It is legal for them to sell OpenOffice, though I have no idea about the implications of the different name. How much did they charge? What's on CD's, besides OpenOffice. I have no problem at all with someone selling OpenOffice on a CD, as they provide a service for those who download. Did they promise support and then send users here? -- Use OpenOffice.org <http://www.openoffice.org> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
