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From: john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer)
Newsgroups: net.games
Subject: Re: Infocom games
Message-ID: <414@moncol.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 13:55:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: moncol.414
Posted: Wed Jul 10 13:55:20 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 03:17:30 EDT
References: <775@ihlpg.UUCP> <4786@stolaf.UUCP> <1601@orca.UUCP>
Organization: Monmouth College, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
Lines: 49

>From: jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR)
>Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
>Message-ID: <775@ihlpg.UUCP>
>
>> > Since Infocom games are so relatively useless after you finish them, and
>> > since there's quite a few of us who play them here, what about trading them?
>> 
>> The Infocom games are licensed for a single CPU only.
>
>Whoa.  I didn't get that out of reading my warranty.  I mean, once you 
>buy the disk, it's personal property, isn't it?  Like a book, which you
>can sell, trade, give away, destroy, or set on a shelf and allow to collect
>dust.  I can understand that the warranty might only cover the original
>owner, but that's the same for a lot of other products.

I haven't looked at an Infocom license lately, but based on some others,
the following can be said to apply:

The software is licensed for a single CPU. This just means that the same
game (or, rather, several copies derived from the same "original") can't be
running on more than one machine at a time. If you take Borland's attitude,
then it just means that you can only play your copy on one machine at a
time. At the worst, it means that you have purchased the game to run on a
specific machine- YOURS. (I suspect that this is what the first follow-up
refers to.)

Many licenses do, however, have a provision for transferring ownership.
Usually this just means that you must transfer any documentation and any
and all copies you have made of the product.  I'm not sure how this would
effect support on a product such as Lotus, but for an adventure game.....
who cares?

I am not a lawyer or even a legal expert, but I do have some trouble
imagining serious problems with transfer of the software provided, as I
stated above, that all copies of the program, documentation, etc. are also
transferred. 

Whether I want to see this happening over Usenet is another question.....


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