Re: Consideration in a Shrinkwrap Contract

John Noble writes:

: 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 would certainly seem the preferable solution if the vendors are not willing to enter into mass market transactions without the protection of shrink wrap licenses. Preferable, if only because there will be plenty of vendors who will be willing to enter into mass market transactions without shrink wraps. And anyway most most market software transactions in the future will be of open software, where shrinkwraps make no sense.

In the future commodity software, including, of course, operating systems, will be free. Other software will be sold or licensed in accordance negotiated terms.

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu   
        NOTE: junger[_at_]pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu no longer exists