Malk wrote: >Would it be possible for us to supply and install Open Office onto customers PCs?
1: Legal Issues OOo is distributed under the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2.1, February 1999. As such, you can: * Install it on as many computers as you desire; * Give away as many copies as you like; * Sell as many copies as you like, for whatever price you can obtain for them; * Port it to any platform you want to run it on; * Add any functionality that you may want, or need; * Remove any functionality that you neither want, nor need; Provided that the source code to the product is distributed with the product, or an offer to provide source code for at least three years to all and sundry is made at the time of distribution of the executable binary.. 2: Deployment Before deployment have your attorney: * Go through all of the licenses for all of the software you currently use; * Go through all computer service contracts you currently have; to determine whether or not your current licenses / contracts: * Permit you to deploy programs you may currently be using; * Permit you to deploy FLOSS; Some software EULAs (End User License Agreements) have clauses which prohibit them from being run in conjunction with FLOSS. Some computer maintenance contracts have clauses which prohibit the installation of any software that is not specifically listed in the contract; 3: Resources The following URLs provide additional information: * http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-licensing.html * http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html 4: Patents Patents are an issue only in the United States and countries that have been terrorized by the United States into issuing software patents. OOo is deliberately excluded from all patent protection agreements that Microsoft has made with other companies. As such, Microsoft has the option of pursuing legal action to enforce its patents. It costs roughly US$1,000,000 for a successful defense of a patent. The primary part of the defense will be to overturn the patent that allegedly was violated. A second part of that defence will be to prove that the USPTO failed to adhere to US Statute law in issuing the patent. xan jonathon -- OOo can not correct for incompetence in creating documents from MSO. Furthermore,OOo can not compensate for the defective and flawed security measures used by Microsoft. As such, before using this product for exams that require faulty and defective software, ensure that you will not be unjustly penalized for the incompetence of the organization that requires the use of software that is known to be flawed, defective, bug-ridden, and fails to meet ISO file format standards. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
