Re: Consideration in a Shrinkwrap Contract

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000 01:23:53 -0400, cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org wrote:
>At 12:52 PM -0400 10/25/00, Ralph Clifford wrote:
>> It's not the practice that is the problem, it is the methodology. If
>>you go to a car company to lease a vehicle, the parties will sit down and
>>execute a lease. Only then is the car delivered. It is the after-the-fact
>>attempt to transform what was a sale into a license that triggers the
>>problem.
>
>And your solution is that the vendors of software need to abandon mass
>market distribution and require each purchaser to "COME ON IN AND NEGOTIATE
>A DEAL THAT CAN'T BE BEAT...." And when you find yourself paying the
>transaction costs of an automobile lease, you can console yourself with the
>assurance that there's no mileage limitation on the deal.
>

     It is, after all, the distributors of software who wish to change the distribution norms provided by the law. I have no problem whatsoever of requiring the party who wishes to modify a transaction from what the law will assume into another form to undertake whatever is legally required to achieve that result. If this is too expensive for software distributors to do, then maybe they shouldn't do it!

--
Ralph Clifford
Professor of Law
S. New England School of Law
rclifford_nospam[_at_]snesl.edu