Andreas/Mortiis/Dionysos
-- andreas@mnsinc.com-- "The church bells toll a melancholy round, Calling the people to some other prayers, Some other gloominess, more dreadful cares, More hearkening to the sermon's horrid sound. Surely the mind of man is closely bound In some black spell; seeing that each one tears Himself from fireside joys, and Lydian airs, And converse high of those with glory crown'd. Still, still they toll, and I should feel a damp,-- A chill as from a tomb, did I not know That they are dying like an outburnt lamp; That 'tis their signing, wailing ere they go Into oblivion;--that fresh flowers will grow, And many glories of immortal stamp." -- Keats "Sonnet: Written in disgust of vulgar superstition"---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 01:24:33 -0600 From: Richard Stallman <gnu@gnu.org> To: info-gnu@gnu.org, gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org Subject: New danger of shrink-wrap licenses
[The GNU project is re-posting this message because we oppose the planned anti-user changes in the Uniform Commercial Code. Please forward this to other newsgroups and mailing lists, where appropriate.]
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 10:44:30 -0400 From: "Matt Samsonoff" <matt@bluelobster.com> To: gnu@gnu.org Subject: Freedom for software consumers.
Hello,
Your organization supports the freedom of programmers to write programs, but what about freedom for software consumers?
The Uniform Commercial Code Article 2B, which has been in the drafting stage for several years, gives software companies the ability to screw over their customers. The current UCC prevents companies from taking consumer rights away in the fine print of contracts but article 2B will allow them to write anything they want into the contract.. and they will be able to enforce it. Software companies will take away as many consumer rights as they can.
Here's a brief list of items that publishers will be able to put in their licenses (this list is taken from Cem Kaner's web site, http://www.badsoftware.com/ali.html):
- Prohibition against publishing detailed criticisms of the software. - Prohibition against reverse engineering. - Prohibition against decompiling the software. - Prohibition (via the ban of reverse engineering) against developing products that are interoperable with this one. - Restrictions on the nature or purposes of use of the product. - Restrictions against competition. - Publisher has choice of law (entirely unrestricted to whatever state or country the publisher chooses) - Publisher has choice of forum (the publisher can choose that you have to sue them in Nigeria).
Cem Kaner has a web site with several papers that he has written on the subject:
ZDNet has written a few articles on this subject:
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_1992.html http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwk/0435/161310.html
Article 2B is a threat to anyone who uses a computer. I just wanted to make sure your organization is aware of it.
Thanks, Matt
-- =================================================================== Matt Samsonoff mailto:matt@bluelobster.com Blue Lobster Software http://www.bluelobster.com Cascade Centre Tel : 716-546-3550 x252 72 Cascade Drive Fax : 716-546-5488 Rochester, NY 14614"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."
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