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It used to be written on the disk pack in the back of software manuals: "THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD. By opening this packet you agree to be bound by th
by bitwize 2y ago
It used to be written on the disk pack in the back of software manuals: "THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD. By opening this packet you agree to be bound by the terms of the End User License Agreement." Which was usually written in very "rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me" terms that bound you, the end user, and benefited the publisher. You couldn't resell it, you couldn't reverse-engineer or decompile it, you couldn't do anything but run it on one (1) computer for the specific purpose for which it was written. Some EULAs even stipulated license expiry terms; the one for dBASE III demanded that you return the software disks and other materials after a period of fifty (50) years from the date of purchase.
You've never owned the proprietary software you've used. You only used it as long as the whim of the copyright owner allowed it (and/or they couldn't enforce it). This is why Stallman chose twenty-three individuals to establish Free Software Zion several cycles ago.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoBut when you owned a disc you could use offline, they were never going to come to your home and take it. It was effectively yours. Steam normalized a world where that license revocation could actually be invoked and enforced from afar.
- actionfromafar 2y agoI lot of those terms were thrown at the wall to see if they stuck, though. There's the First Sale doctrine for instance. If you actually signed a contract, all bets are off, but if you just bought a shrink-wrap, a lot of these terms were make-believe.
- bitwize 2y agoVernor v. Autodesk says no.
- actionfromafar 2y agoOuch, that's sad. But I must say I don't quite understand the implications of that ruling. Also, there are many jurisdictions, and the shopping list of terms on shrink-wrap can't possibly hold in all of them..