4 ms·

How does one determine whether something is pirated in these cases? All the music I've bought in the past few months has been distributed to me DRM-free so ther

by cynest 15y ago

How does one determine whether something is pirated in these cases? All the music I've bought in the past few months has been distributed to me DRM-free so there exists no difference between it and a pirated copy other than a receipt. To make a long story short, having to proved that I have licenses for everything on my computer is utter crap.

scotty79 15y ago
If you run a company that's the rules. If you can't prove that you are licensed to use every single piece of software that you have on your computer then you can have your whole computer (or just the hard drive) confiscated and held for indefinite amount of time by the police probably long enough to technology become obsolete and your withheld data to become meaningless. At least that's how it looks in Poland. Using any non opensource software is so scary that I wonder why would anyone pay and take the risk. There was even one case when polish company purchased software directly from the US but polish distributor of this software insisted that it was pirated because they didn't sell it. Police went in. Confiscated computers and media for investigation. Software was essential for operation of this company so the company died.
- Iv 15y ago
  To be fair, the goal of that law is to allow arbitrary detention of computers without any kind of justification. I wonder however how they would confiscate my laptop running only free software. Well, they could always pretend it is stolen : I usually don't have the receipt of it while travelling.
  - spindritf 15y ago
    > I wonder however how they would confiscate my laptop running only free software. No one knows a priori what software you have on your laptop. They either have to take your word for it or analyse the contents of the disk -- and that's a reason to withhold your equipment. I'm sure it would be returned. Eventually.
- vladd 15y ago
  > Using any non opensource software is so scary that I wonder why would anyone pay and take the risk. In Romania, businesses must fill each month online statements, but such fillings can only be done with Microsoft Internet Explorer, and there's no option to fill them in person. So you're forced to use non opensource software.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - eliasmacpherson 15y ago
    I know you may be aware of this already and could have tried it, but in case not: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-view-lite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-view-lite/ It's a firefox plugin that can run iexplorer through wine under linux.
    - onemoreact 15y ago
      iexplorer is not open source.
      - eliasmacpherson 15y ago
        Just in case I was misleading people, from here: http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/ http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/ E. g. the EULA for IE6 states: "NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID EULA FOR ANY "OS PRODUCT" (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98, MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT 4.0, MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000, MICROSOFT MILLENNIUM EDITION, MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP, OR ANY OTHER MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM THAT IS A SUCCESSOR TO ANY OF THE FOREGOING OPERATING SYSTEMS) YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO INSTALL, COPY, OR OTHERWISE USE THE OS COMPONENTS AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA."

by cynest 15y ago

scotty79 15y ago

If you run a company that's the rules. If you can't prove that you are licensed to use every single piece of software that you have on your computer then you can have your whole computer (or just the hard drive) confiscated and held for indefinite amount of time by the police probably long enough to technology become obsolete and your withheld data to become meaningless. At least that's how it looks in Poland. Using any non opensource software is so scary that I wonder why would anyone pay and take the risk. There was even one case when polish company purchased software directly from the US but polish distributor of this software insisted that it was pirated because they didn't sell it. Police went in. Confiscated computers and media for investigation. Software was essential for operation of this company so the company died.

Iv 15y ago
To be fair, the goal of that law is to allow arbitrary detention of computers without any kind of justification. I wonder however how they would confiscate my laptop running only free software. Well, they could always pretend it is stolen : I usually don't have the receipt of it while travelling.
- spindritf 15y ago
  > I wonder however how they would confiscate my laptop running only free software. No one knows a priori what software you have on your laptop. They either have to take your word for it or analyse the contents of the disk -- and that's a reason to withhold your equipment. I'm sure it would be returned. Eventually.
vladd 15y ago
> Using any non opensource software is so scary that I wonder why would anyone pay and take the risk. In Romania, businesses must fill each month online statements, but such fillings can only be done with Microsoft Internet Explorer, and there's no option to fill them in person. So you're forced to use non opensource software.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- eliasmacpherson 15y ago
  I know you may be aware of this already and could have tried it, but in case not: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-view-lite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-view-lite/ It's a firefox plugin that can run iexplorer through wine under linux.
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    iexplorer is not open source.
    - eliasmacpherson 15y ago
      Just in case I was misleading people, from here: http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/ http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/ E. g. the EULA for IE6 states: "NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID EULA FOR ANY "OS PRODUCT" (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98, MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT 4.0, MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000, MICROSOFT MILLENNIUM EDITION, MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP, OR ANY OTHER MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM THAT IS A SUCCESSOR TO ANY OF THE FOREGOING OPERATING SYSTEMS) YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO INSTALL, COPY, OR OTHERWISE USE THE OS COMPONENTS AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA."