[KLUG Members] Re: Why does "Software Morality" differ from the rest?

Bryan J. Smith members@kalamazoolinux.org
Mon, 04 Feb 2002 13:40:38 -0500


Rusty Yonkers wrote:
> Is Loki no longer around??

They filed for Chapter 11 (re-organization) last fall.  It was
changed into Chapter 7 (termination) just last week.  No sales will
be taken on-line anymore.  Distributors still have some software,
but it will dry up very quickly.

> Did that once years ago and Microsoft did not want to pursue
> since the company in question also sold alot of stuff for them.

It's amazing how "crooks stick together!"  ;-PPP

> Also, I ended up being the one to do the self audit of the company
> and it was a month plus long pain in the a** for me  and never
> really stopped anything!  The company paid the fines and then
> continued to do what they had all along. :-((  Left a major bad
> taste in my mouth for helping "the system".

Right!  You gotta love 'em!

> Understand .... but shareware can usually be distributed for free
> legally, then it is incumbant on the recipient to get and stay
> legal.  I am not breaking the law in the distribution.

To a point.  E.g., if you are installing Shareware by "default" on
your systems, you have already "evaluated" its usefulness.  Of
course we could play "games" with this, but if it is in my stock
"clone image," I fell I must have a site license.

I also try to take care of doing so with even Linux stuff.  E.g., Xv
is shareware, but included with many distros (does RedHat still
include it?).

-- Bryan

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer        mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   
AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.     http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.          http://www.SmithConcepts.com
---------------------------------------------------------
1999 IRS Data:  The top 1% of income earners pay over 36%
of the taxes, but have less than 20% of the total income.