Re: VA "drop dead" law

Stuart Case writes:
>
> Don Berman:
> There is one more point that should be made in favor of timebombs as a
> self-help measure in software: They play an important part in discouraging
> a software vendee from making unauthorized copies of software and then
> passing those copies on to friends or colleagues, who then use them without
> authorization or payment. Because, when the software ceases to operate,
> where is this secondary user going to go for support and correction?
> Certainly not to the programmer, since his copy is illegal. And certainly
> not to the vendee who gave it to him, since the vendee is incompetent to
> handle the problem.
> Using the court system as an alternative is problematic at best,
> because the programmer cannot know to who copies have been illegally
> supplied, in order to sue the recipients. Indeed, without built in
> protective devices, he would have no way to know that copies had been
> made and given away to others, in order to sue the vendee for contract
> or license violations.

I think that it is reasonable that the seller have a message that informs that the program will not work beyond a certain date. We are trying a package that is important to our organization but each time we load there is a message that says this license expires as of June 30, 1994. The point is a good one in that the ease with which software can be copied offers further justification for the timebomb. I can remember that a few years ago users were screaming for software that could be easily copied and now that we have software that we can copy we want to deny the developer one effective means of controlling unauthorized distribution.

  Don Berman --  

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