Do You Actually Own Your Software?
Nope. You almost certainly paid lots of money for a license use the software, not the software itself. The 9th circuit appellate court reversed the earlier trial court’s decision, effectively revoking the doctrine of First Sale for software.
Starting with the standard observation of I Am Not A Lawyer, I think the law is wrong here. The doctrine of First Sale has been with us for more than a century and we seem to be getting along just fine. The idea that all software is licensed — not purchased — leads to all sorts of chicanery. I understand the motivation of software companies — I’m a developer, after all — but pages of dense legalese that can only be read once the package is opened (and, therefore, not returnable) is exactly the kind of penny-wise, pound-foolish mentality that gives the pirates, open source advocates and script kiddies ammunition. Which is not to say that Open Source equals piracy or script kiddies.
Simply put, the ability to resell increases first sales. I know that I’m investigating several very expensive (~$1k or so) software tools to help with my work. If I knew I could work with for an extended period of time and not the 7 to 30 days in the trialware, I would be more likely to buy it — particularly if I also knew I had a reasonable chance of recouping a large percentage of my purchase on the secondary market. You know, sort of like buying a car.
“But there’s a difference,” you might say, “between a car and software!” Why, yes, there is. I know full well that you can’t copy a Nissan quite as easily as you can copy Quickbooks. To me, the major problem is with the mindset associated with the “license everything” mindset. By going to such exorbitant lengths to try and wring every last nickel out of their customers, the vendor must treat every potential buyer as a potential thief. Imagine this as your car shopping experience: you go into the dealer to try out a new car. After photocopying your license, they then want to attach a tracking anklet (like the kind used by the penal system) to you before you can go on a test drive. “Hey!” you object. “You already have my information; if I were to steal the car, you can just send the police to my house.” The salesman looks at you as if you were quite clearly daft: “Yeah, but that could be fake. This way, we’ll know if you go to a chop shop and try to have someone take out a small part from the inside where we otherwise might not notice until it’s too late or head for the next state.” You: “But you’ll be in the car with me” Salesman: “Sure, but you could always force me out once we leave the lot.” In my opinion, the dealer would probably never have a car stolen on a test drive. But I wouldn’t go there under pretty much any circumstance.
And this is the way is seems to be with a significant number of software vendors. Two notable exceptions are Oracle and IBM. You can download just about any Oracle software for free, install it and do what you want with it, so long as it is not in support of a production system. At that point, you have to pay Oracle. The net result is that people are more likely to experiment with Oracle (it’s free, so why not); even if they do not end up deploying Oracle, such a deployment is much more likely to happen, as once you get started on a project with a specific technology, simple inertia tends to keep things status quo. Uncle Larry isn’t stupid and Oracle’s the second largest software company in the world, so I’m sure they’ve done the math. And IBM? I’m not completely up on their product sales, but I know they’re making a bundle (try 1.5 Billion) offering support and service to open source products. Again, they’re not stupid. So, why can’t the rest of the industry get with the program?
Or, alternatively, go with one of the “as-a-service” models. For those cases, it truly is a licensing approach. Nothing gets installed, nothing gets shipped (like a CD) to the consumer. Maybe even simpler, aside from some of the other issues associated with service-style models (chapter three, for more details).
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