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From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac)
Newsgroups: fa.info-mac
Subject: Re: SmoothTalker(tm) Warning
Message-ID: <2449@uw-beaver>
Date: Wed, 5-Dec-84 05:56:56 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.2449
Posted: Wed Dec  5 05:56:56 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 04:52:28 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beave
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 36

From: Joseph I. Pallas 
After reading the description of the "Agreement" offered by First Byte
for Smoothtalker(tm), I have some advice:

DON'T TAKE THIS KIND OF BULLSH*T FROM ANYONE!  Don't give your support
to software pirates, for that's exactly what these people are.  They
take your money and don't even promise you something in return, let
alone deliver it.  Be sure to let them know exactly why you refuse to
deal with them, too.  If enough people stop taking this kind of crud,
perhaps the message will get through.

(An aside: is it any wonder that so many otherwise ethical people are
willing to violate agreements like this one?  It's pretty easy to
rationalize along the lines of "They've promised me absolutely
nothing, so why should I be hesitant to share that nothing with
others?")

I know that this is not the place to discuss legal matters, but I'd
like to raise a legal point in addition to my ethical one.  I must say
that I am not a lawyer and have no training in the law.  I have read
in more than one place, however, about the implied warrant of
merchantability (or some such legalistic phrase) which essentially
says that no agreement you sign protects the seller if the product is
completely unusable, or not what he says it is.  I suspect this is
related to your protection against fraud.  Hence, if the product was
represented to you as having a female voice, or being callable from
other programs (the version you were buying), I believe they would
have no protection against your suit.

I have serious doubts about whether some of those other points would
hold up, as well--especially the one about their owning software you
develop.  I'd love to see them produce something in court that proves
you accepted their license.

joe
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