Re: [PLUG] Reg: You thought you bought software – all you bought was a lie

[Rich Freeman via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 8:35 PM JP Vossen via plug
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
>
> https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/04/you_cannot_buy_software/
>

One of my pet peeves is that the idea that commercial software is
licensed, and not sold, is essentially a lie at least in the
traditional form.  That actually makes the central premise of this
article, which it seems to take forever to get around to spilling, a
lie.

Suppose you go to a store and buy a box that has software in it, and
you open the box, and it has a big label on the disc that says "This
software is licensed for your use.  This is not a sale."  That is a
lie.  You bought it.  You own it.  Period.

Now, your rights with that 100% legally owned software are certainly
limited by copyright law.  Just because you own software doesn't mean
that you can copy and redistribute it.

Now, if you're renting software with a subscription service, that is
certainly more like a licensing relationship.

Ultimately though words like "sale" and "licensed" are descriptive.
If you want to know if you've bought something you look at how the
relationship you have with it works.  Just because somebody says they
didn't sell something to you doesn't make it so.

Yes, I'm aware there are countless articles that are commonly accepted
about how software is licensed and not sold.  I'm not interested in a
parade of links to these.  They're wrong, and yes, I'm aware I'm
talking about numerous people everybody knows and respects.

> I bet $WORK has paid for proprietary software licenses for programs to track and manage...wait for it...proprietary software licenses!  Circular insanity.

No argument there.  I'm ripping my hair out at work trying to figure
out who is supposed to pay some invoices for a software subscription,
with the threat looming that at some point access to the software
could be revoked.  That would definitely be a case of "licensing,"
despite costing millions of dollars...  :)

-- 
Rich
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