Re: [PLUG] OT OEM software

["Kyle R . Burton" <mortis@voicenet.com>]

> "So does this mean Linux users can break up a hardware/software bundle, keep
> the hardware to run Linux on and sell the software? Yes, says attorney Wendy
> Seltzer, Fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law
> School. "It makes a strong case that the licenses purporting to restrict
> resale in this manner are not valid licenses--so the transactions are in
> fact sales, and the buyers are not subject to the "license" conditions. It
> helped that Softman hadn't even had to click a clickwrap", Seltzer said in
> an e-mail interview.
> 
> Bear in mind, tho, that many PCs these days do NOT come with an OS on CD;
> it's only installed on the HD, and - maybe - the CD is copied to a directory
> on the HD.

I has been at least ten years since I bought a prepackaged PC, but two weeks
ago I found myself in Best Buy helping my parents pick out a new PC.  After
they retreived the system from storage, the salesperson informed us that
Best Buy has a policy of hooking everything up, and starting up the system 
to make sure it all works before the customer leaves the store.  We were
told that this helps find problems and reduces the number of returns that
are necessary.  It only took about 10min.  While we were waiting, watching
the technician click through the 'I Agree to this licensing agreement'
prompts it dawned on me that many of the customers who buy new PCs won't
get the opportunity to choose not to use the bundled software - the 
manufacturers and retailers might eliminate that possibility by 'testing'
the systems before purchase.  I don't know if yoru consent to the test allows
them to accept the agreements on your behalf or not, but it's a good tactic
to force license agreement.

That, and they wouldn't complete the sale without giving signup information 
for the free MSN account.  The only way around that was to immediatly call 
the 1-800 number and struggle through explaining that we already had internet 
service and didn't want MSN.


Kyle



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