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

[JP Vossen via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On 10/5/22 14:27, Rich Freeman wrote:
> 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.

I don't follow you there.  Maybe in legal theory that is true, but not in my reality.


> 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.

But you don't own it.  At all.  Not when the vendor has complete control over when and if it even works, due to timed licenses, or requiring a DRM server to be online and working, or some other insanity.  How many games that people "bought" have gone away due to crap like that?  How many ebooks that people "bought" have been erased from Kindles later?  And that copy of Windows you "bought," but now want to move to a different PC?  Maybe, maybe, if you catch just the right alignment of tech support folks in a really good mood, you MIGHT be permitted to do that.  Maybe.  Once.  Just this time.  With the software you "bought."

Nope, to me, most commercial software is rented, at best.  By the hour it seems.


> Ultimately though words like "sale" and "licensed" are descriptive.

Well, they should be.  But IT sales and marketing "folks" (I can't use the words I want to use here) seem to think that words can mean whatever they want them to.  And so far they've mostly gotten away with it.  The canonical example is drive sizes, of course.  Or the opposite end of the spectrum, with "cloud" which means so many things it means nothing.  This drives me crazy.  IT/Software/pick-your-own-word-here "Engineering" can never be considered a real profession until our jargon is precisely defined and meaningful.  And right now, it just isn't, and that makes me sad.

Later,
JP
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