kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (12/12/88)
In article <10684@s.ms.uky.edu>, sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: > > I'm curious. Has the "shrink wrap" license stood up in court? If, for > example, someone can't read and breaks the wrap on some software, is he > bound to that license even though he hasn't signed anything? > > Here in KY, a contract isn't a contract until you have two John > Hancocks, but then again a contract isn't a license either. Haven't heard of a major case going to court on this yet ... or a minor one either, for that matter. Idea to try on your next state tax return: deduct all SALES taxes that you've paid on s/w packages (except for a nominal amount to cover the price of the media, cardboard box, etc) from your tax liability. Obviously, if you don't really own what you thought you owned, you shouldn't be paying sales tax on it, should you (since you don't own it)? Calmly explain all of this to the tax collector ... and refer her to the s/w publisher who *claims* that you don't own what you bought. Let them explain all this to the tax folks ... I'd really love to see this happen ... :-) Just remember ... you can claim *anything* you want to. That does not necessarily make it so. If it looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk ... it probably *is* a skunk. Etc. /kim P.S. To those of you that use CP ... keep it up! Soon you'll be right along side Vault Corp (the bankrupt CP czar's) ... right where you belong! [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ] -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,uunet,oliveb,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 BIX: kdevaughn GEnie: K.DEVAUGHN CIS: 76535,25
mermelstein%tel.inrs.cdn@relay.ubc.ca (lois mermelstein) (12/14/88)
kim@amdahl.amdahl.com writes: >Idea to try on your next state tax return: deduct all SALES taxes that you've >paid on s/w packages (except for a nominal amount to cover the price of the >media, cardboard box, etc) from your tax liability. Obviously, if you don't >really own what you thought you owned, you shouldn't be paying sales tax on >it, should you (since you don't own it)? > >Calmly explain all of this to the tax collector ... and refer her to the s/w >publisher who *claims* that you don't own what you bought. Let them explain >all this to the tax folks ... > >I'd really love to see this happen ... :-) [stuff deleted] This isn't as far out as you might think. If you live in Canada and want to bring home software you bought in the States, you'll pay duty on the *media*, but not on the data on the media (if you can prove how much each component cost). Does anyone have any guesses on the reasoning behind this? Lois Mermelstein mermelstein@tel.inrs.cdn