Text 6594, 64 rader
Skriven 2005-04-03 12:17:17 av Alan Zisman (1:106/2000.0)
   Kommentar till text 6585 av TOM WALKER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: I've Been AOL'd Part
================================
-=> TOM WALKER wrote to ALAN ZISMAN <=-

 AZ>For instance, in my previous school, sometime around 1997 or so, when I had
 AZ>lab full of 386s running Win 3.1, I purchased licenses for the then-current
 AZ>Visual Basic 5.0. As a Win9x product, it wouldn't run on our Win 3.1
systems
 AZ>(and would have taken more disk space than most of the hard drives on those
 AZ>systems). So I installed VB 1.0, which could be installed in under 2 MB of
 AZ>drive space, and was designed for Win 3.0.

 AZ>But I don't know that this is really legal, if a software company chose to
 AZ>challenge it.

 TW> For most of the End User Licences I have read I highly doubt that was
 TW> legal. They typicaly specificly outline what program that licence
 TW> applies to.

While I agree that public organizations (including schools) need to be seen to
be 'doing no evil', there are times when the letter of the law can drive us all
crazy. In this circumstance, if I couldn't legally 'downgrade', I would be
completely out of luck as, at the time, MS wasn't selling a Visual Basic
version that WOULD run on the hardware we had.

In those circumstances, I end up recommending doing the best action that can be
done in good faith... I had 15 systems, I purchased 15 licenses for Visual
Basic. If the 'software police' were to object, I would have to deal with the
objections, but in my heart, I felt that we were ethically, if not legally,
doing the right thing.

Here, the 'good faith' is the important thing; since I had a copy of VB1, I
could simply have installed it 15 times, taking the cheap and easy way out of
saying that MS didn't want to sell us a product we could use.

 AZ>There is nothing that I'm aware of suggesting that machines donated to
schoo
 AZ>'remain legitimate' if there is no documentation of the original Windows
 AZ>license.

 TW> Not that one I did investigate as for a while I was installing a
 TW> smal lnumber of donated computers for a Church Group. Chose computwers
 TW> some with OS and programs are in NO way legal Unless ALL documation
 TW> also accompanies the donation.
 TW> In fact he policy of that church grop to stay in comformaty with the
 TW> Intelectual property LAW, Under the "Avoid the VERY apperance of Evil"
 TW> doctrine, was that NO donation could be accecpted without the Proper,
 TW> as outlined in the EURL, documentation.
 TW> I had several fights over that one from well meaning people wanting to
 TW> donate a computer.

 AZ>One thing that Microsoft has done right (in my opinion) for schools is that
 AZ>they have a program called Fresh Start for Education... schools can apply,
 AZ>noting the number of donated systems they expect to have, and get a license
 AZ>allowing them to install (their choice of) Win98SE or Win2000. Microsoft
sen
 AZ>a license, and copies of the two OSs... in case you know any interested
 AZ>schools:

 TW> WELL, Finally I can put a chalk one up FOR MicroSoft and Billie Gates.

Sadly, this program only applies to schools... it can't be used by churches,
charities, or other financially-strapped non-profit groups. 
... Inet mail to: alan at zisman dot ca
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