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Old 12-09-2010, 10:27 AM
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kustard (Simon)
Great Sage == Heaven

kustard is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 735
Software licensing is a minefield. Do you own it? Can you resell it? Can you buy an upgrade and use the old version on another computer whilst running the upgrade on your main computer?

A big problem is that the license agreements are so long and full of legalese that hardly anyone reads them, they just accept and install without fully understanding what they may be agreeing to.

If I write some code, I like to think I own the source code, after all it's my IP. If I then say sell the compiled code, who ever buys the physical or digital copy owns that copy and they are free to do with it as they wish. This is how I think all software should be, but as seen this is not the case and from what I have seen in the electronics industry that I have worked in for most my life, a lot of this kind of licensing comes from highly specialised industry programs (like CAD and CAM applications) where you pay a large sum of money for the software and receive a lot of extra services such as 24hr support etc etc.

Sorry for the wall of text.
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