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From: "Ben A L Jemmett" <bal.jemmett@ukonline.co.uk>
Subject: Re: the ultimate IF archive
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Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 23:52:31 GMT
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.arts.int-fiction:98455

"Branko Collin" <collin@xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:3c59b7a0.8001592@news.xs4all.nl...
> Hm, Microsoft's lap dogs function differently in your country than in
> the other Germanic countries across the pond then. Here they, erm, how
> shall I put this in such a way I won't get sued for libel ...? They
> 'persuade' Y to buy off a law suit by purchasing Microsoft software.

Well, IME, they approach and say 'look, your audit showed you were using
these unlicensed copies of Office; please buy a license or stop using the
software immediately'.  Which is fair enough.  Companies that don't then
either buy the license or stop using the software end up paying for the
software, plus legal costs at least, when MS take them to court (I think the
FAST or BSA get involved with the court case a lot of the time in some
capacity).

> BTW, I know of very few cases (none, actually) where people were
> brought to court for downloading MS Office off the internet and using
> it.

The auditors and the publisher don't care how one obtained the software,
just that one has all the relevant licences.  The copy displayed by the
setup program doesn't count, since it's there so they can add the buttons
asking 'do you agree to the above?'.  All the software I've bought recently
(last 5 years at least) has had the paper licence, which is always a good
thing to keep around somewhere.  Again, this is IME, it may not be typical,
but I'm relatively sure it is.

--
Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/, http://www.deltasoft.com/)


