XP, intellectual property law, good faith, and good will.
Posted by: Deane F on 03 December 2004
As far as I can recall, that protection conferred upon intellectual property by copyright law continues only as long as the owner of the copyright is actively protecting the property in the marketplace. So it is fair enough for Microsoft to send in the lawyers etc when breaches of copyright are detected and to write code into software that protects that software's copyright.
What seems a little unfair is when the software forces a continued relationship between the owner of the software and the owner of the copyright, as seems to be the case with XP. I don't run XP (my computer is too old but I'm upgrading in a few weeks) but I wonder if the nature of the protections written into it are, as a matter of course, made clear to the purchaser at point of purchase. If the owner of the hardware cannot make alterations without asking, in effect, for permission from the owners of the copyright of the operating system to make such changes, and this is not clearly understood by both parties at point of purchase, then the vendors of the software are in breach of contract because what is not clearly spelled out in a contract must be fair and reasonable. Perhaps the issue is an artifact of the peculiar relationship between computer hardware and operating systems. No doubt my reasoning is faulty.
Through the years I've noticed a lot of ill-will against Microsoft and the catches written into XP have not improved matters. It does seem to show that Microsoft assumes bad faith on the part of their customers.
It would be impossible to quantify the effect of a high degree of goodwill in terms of sales but I venture the argument nonetheless that were Microsoft to treat their customers a little better they might make more money. I remember the owners of film rights to Harry Potter sending "Cease and Desist" orders to twelve year old fans who ran websites and the opposite approach of Lord of the Rings fimmakers who actively supported fan sites to the point of inviting webmasters to preview parties. The latter approach seems more likely to foster goodwill and sales. I know that many of my own purchasing decisions are based more upon goodwill than price.
Deane
What seems a little unfair is when the software forces a continued relationship between the owner of the software and the owner of the copyright, as seems to be the case with XP. I don't run XP (my computer is too old but I'm upgrading in a few weeks) but I wonder if the nature of the protections written into it are, as a matter of course, made clear to the purchaser at point of purchase. If the owner of the hardware cannot make alterations without asking, in effect, for permission from the owners of the copyright of the operating system to make such changes, and this is not clearly understood by both parties at point of purchase, then the vendors of the software are in breach of contract because what is not clearly spelled out in a contract must be fair and reasonable. Perhaps the issue is an artifact of the peculiar relationship between computer hardware and operating systems. No doubt my reasoning is faulty.
Through the years I've noticed a lot of ill-will against Microsoft and the catches written into XP have not improved matters. It does seem to show that Microsoft assumes bad faith on the part of their customers.
It would be impossible to quantify the effect of a high degree of goodwill in terms of sales but I venture the argument nonetheless that were Microsoft to treat their customers a little better they might make more money. I remember the owners of film rights to Harry Potter sending "Cease and Desist" orders to twelve year old fans who ran websites and the opposite approach of Lord of the Rings fimmakers who actively supported fan sites to the point of inviting webmasters to preview parties. The latter approach seems more likely to foster goodwill and sales. I know that many of my own purchasing decisions are based more upon goodwill than price.
Deane
Fair point, Harry.
My situation, as you mention, differs in that I am just a bloke with a home PC. Purely amateur use: in fact it belongs to the Mother of My Children (
) and all I was trying to do was stop bloody pop-ups and the viruses that prevented me connecting to Hotmail and eBay.
Many hours of cyber confusion later I have discovered that buying a PC with XP Home bundled within does not enable you to back up ( no disk with the PC), the virus protection is far greater with SP2 but to install SP2 one should perform a back up: which having no disk I cannot do.... etc.
My earlier question elsewhere asked if I would drop my pal in the corporate pooh if I registered the XP Pro I borrowed from him.
Anyway.
Regards
Mike
Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.
My situation, as you mention, differs in that I am just a bloke with a home PC. Purely amateur use: in fact it belongs to the Mother of My Children (
) and all I was trying to do was stop bloody pop-ups and the viruses that prevented me connecting to Hotmail and eBay.Many hours of cyber confusion later I have discovered that buying a PC with XP Home bundled within does not enable you to back up ( no disk with the PC), the virus protection is far greater with SP2 but to install SP2 one should perform a back up: which having no disk I cannot do.... etc.
My earlier question elsewhere asked if I would drop my pal in the corporate pooh if I registered the XP Pro I borrowed from him.
Anyway.
Regards
Mike
Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.
quote:
consider that of Microsoft who give away free copies of Windows XP Service Pack 2. In other words, a free upgrade.
Sorry Mike, I had assumed you understood the difference between bugfix (or even a collection of bugfixes released as a service pack, and a feature upgrade. SP1, SP2, SP(n) is not an upgrade, it's a service pack.
It appears you are unable to accept rational explaination, or simply prefer not to pay attention. Many have pointed out to you that although you have strong opinions, you are "plain old wrong" [shrugs shoulders] in either your expectations of free features and improvements, and freedom of copying intellectual property. Wrong enough that under law and their licensing agreements, your actions are also seen as illegal.
Right, having made that simple for you - this is the put yourself in the businessman's shoes while you ask for free stuff situation. Try explaining your business plan that would make development of feature upgrades and their release to your registered users free, without increasing current pricing levels. [the good old "put up or shut up" question]. Hope that's clear enough for you!
Mike mentioned
quote:
[/kicking a man when he is down mode]
And while we're at it - why are you talking about kickings in a thread? I know this is the padded cell; straitjackets weren't a condition of entry, were they? Seriously, are you okay?
Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
PS - Mike, I choose not to reply in a humourous manner to you. And yes, I do "actually have a genuine interest in this area" - hence my serious, consistent replies to "just a bloke with a home PC. Purely amateur use:" with large (and some might say, unrealistic) expectations. Here's your smilie.
[This message was edited by Rico on Sun 12 December 2004 at 2:28.]
quote:
Originally posted by Patrick Dixon:
It's probably a bit beyond the home user, but if you can discipline yourself to keep a log of the software and configuration changes you make to your machine, it makes it much easier to rebuild the computer complete with the utilities you use.
Isn't it long overdue that one shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist with a full computer proficiency certificate just to run a home computer?
MS has had long enough as an almost complete OS monopoly to have it thoroughly fixed by now. Why can't we all just plug (in) and go?
Modern society is supposed to be getting steadily dumbed down. Not "improved" by MS. It goes against the grain!
Nime
quote:
Originally posted by Nime:
MS has had long enough as an almost complete OS monopoly to have it thoroughly fixed by now. Why can't we all just plug (in) and go?
You can - buy a Mac!
JR
quote:
Originally posted by JonR:
You can - buy a Mac!
JR
Macs are beautiful machines, by many accounts more reliable, simple, user-friendly etc than the PC.
But I notice the shelves of Mac software are very small at most retailers. And $300 NZD for a floppy drive
, ($25 NZD for a PC floppy drive). I still find floppy disks very useful.But the software issue is what militates against the Mac for me. To steal an analogy, why buy a car that you can drive on only five percent of the roads?
Deane
As seen in The INQ UK consumers bunch of crooks, Microsoft survey shows .
quote:
. . . that concern for ethics "evaporates" for 43 per cent when they get the opportunity to buy counterfeit and illegal goods at prices that seem too good to be true . . .
quote:
Originally posted by Deane F:
But the software issue is what militates against the Mac for me. To steal an analogy, why buy a car that you can drive on only five percent of the roads?
Deane
That used to be my take on things but I don't believe it's anything like as bad as it used to be.
I recently brought an iMac as I admin a 500ish PC/Server network all day and although I use a computer a lot at home I want to use it and not fix it IYSWIM.
I'll admit I don't do that much, mostly web/usenet/email and some office type stuff.
So far the only problem I've encountered is how to create a DVD from Windows Media files (WMV) which it just doesn't seem possible to do.
I think there is software to do most things you can do on a PC on a Mac, though there probably isn't as much choice, and it does seem more likely that you'll have to pay for it.
As for the PC thing, Joe Bloggs seems to shit himself at the slightest mention of maintenence and patches.. hell I work with them all day and I still cross my fingers and sacrifice a goat on the odd occasion I have to reboot our exchange box or the main fileserver
Paul