From: palmer@icat.larc.nasa.gov (Michael T. Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.apps
Subject: Re: Donating software to, e.g., Soviet Union
Date: 5 Jan 93 12:52:06 GMT
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: icat.larc.nasa.gov

c23st@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com (Spiros Triantafyllopoulos) writes:

>In article <Bzxwp1.HDx@news.cso.uiuc.edu> berger@gauss (Mike Berger) writes:
>>palmer@icat.larc.nasa.gov (Michael T. Palmer) writes:
>>>In all seriousness, this is a good idea.  But be sure that old versions
>>>have not been UPGRADED, since upgrades require that the old versions be
>>>destroyed (not passed along to your friends/coworkers/etc.).  We have a
>>>big problem with this at work, and the contracts people are having fits.
>>*----
>>I'm sure you mean well, but please don't take it upon yourself to
>>be the guardian of our collective morality.

<MINOR FLAME FOR MR. BERGER: ON>

Whoa!!  Slow down there!!  I'm not trying to be the guardian of anything.
The original poster asked about donating software that wasn't being used,
and since we often have that situation here at work I offered just one
more item to consider.

You'll have to pardon me, but it seems just a little paranoid to consider
my post to be taking it upon myself "to be the guardian of our collective
morality."  Sheesh.  Lighten up fer chrissake, Mr. Berger.  The rest of
your post was informative and contributed to the discussion... you didn't
need to be so judgmental about my motives.  It's not like I said I was
going to turn him over to the net.police or anything.

Concession: I can't hear your tone of voice, so you may not have meant it
quite the way it came across when I read it.

<MINOR FLAME FOR MR. BERGER: OFF>


>>Many enlightened software
>>companies (including Central Point, Borland, and in some instances
>>WordPerfect Corp.) consider an "upgrade" to be an entirely separately
>>licensed product, and permit you to do whatever you want with the old
>>version.  Some companies will even allow new users of the old software
>>to purchase an upgrade as well.

Ah, but is the Mighty Microsoft so enlightend with respect to upgrades?
That was the whole point of my original response: make sure that if you
have an UPGRADE to the product, that it is legal to give away the old one.
But this is something I wasn't aware of - how many other companies have
such policies?  How (other than voting with our dollars) can we get other
companies to handle upgrades the same way?  And is this spelled out in
the license statement?  I don't remember reading such a policy for my
Borland language products.

Note: The original poster was considering donating Microsoft Assembler.


>Considering that in many cases the upgrade price is more expensive than 
>what it costs to buy the product again (Hello Intuit, are you there?) 
>I would feel very comfortable agreeing with the above.

And Intuit isn't the only one (Hello ChipSoft, are you there, too?).  My
TurboTax "upgrades" often cost more than the advertised Egghead price for
the whole new program!

-- 
Michael T. Palmer, M/S 152, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681
Voice: 804-864-2044,   FAX: 804-864-7793,   Email: m.t.palmer@larc.nasa.gov
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Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.apps