Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 UW 5/3/83; site uw-beaver Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!mhuxh!mhuxi!mhuxm!mhuxn!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!info-mac 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. PallasAfter 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 -------