philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (03/09/90)
In response to a posting I made on comp.sys.mac.hardware about transporting a US Mac SE to Europe, I received the following > Fact > Fourth Dimension v. 2.0 is protected, i.e. it will run under an american version > of System, but will not run under a norwegian system (or anyother international > system version) > > Rumored to be protected: > FoxBase Mac (according to the norwegian distributor) > QuarkXPress > > Some products like TOPS and Adobe Freehand have labeled their packages: "Not for > export. For sale in the US only.", but they run over here. There may be other > hitches for US-only programs, like sort orders in the alphabet (Filemaker). > Norwegian has extra characters for "ae", "oe", and "eau". German has a special > character for the double "s". Other languages have similar problems. If a company has not taken the trouble to correctly internationalize its software, that's one thing. But if it's deliberatelty preventing users from launching the software except in the country they intended it to be sold in, that's quite another. For me, one of the great attractions of the Mac is that I can take it with me anywhere in the world where there is electricity. I shouldn't have to worry about whether I have bought the right version of package X (except where this REALLY makes sense, e.g., a German version of a word processor should have a different hyphenation algorithm). It's well known that computer equipment, software etc. is priced differently in different parts of the world - a practice which is becoming threatened by the increasing ease of buying by foreign mail order. I have a few questions: * Can a representative of the companies producing any of the named products comment? * Assuming there is some legitimate reason for limiting sale of a software product geographically, e.g., copyright, why should this prevent someone from using that software in a different part of the world (e.g., a professor going on sabbatical)? Think of the analogous situation of books which, for copyright reasons, are sold in different editions in different parts of the world. * Even if there is such a legitimate reason, should we accept it? Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
cohen@santa_fe.ebay.sun.com (Michael A. Cohen) (03/09/90)
In article <1990Mar8.191013.451@Neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) writes: > > Some products like TOPS [stuff deleted] have labeled their packages: > > "Not for export. For sale in the US only." > Can a representative of the companies producing any of the named > products comment? I'm not positive, but I think the reason that TOPS has the "For Sale in US only" label is due to U.S. Law. The U.S. Gov't is very strict about exports of computer products and software. As far as running on International Systems, TOPS places great emphasis on internationalizing our software. We have versions of our Mac products (TOPS/Mac 3.0 File-Sharing and InBox 3.0) for most European countries, as well as Kanji versions. [Aside: In fact, Apple-Japan recommends TOPS/Mac, because AppleShare doesn't work correctly with their Kanji systems (maybe they've fixed it by now?)]. Michael Cohen T_O_P_S cohen@santa_fe.ebay.sun.com disclaimer: my opinions! all mine!
roland@dna.lth.se (Roland Mansson) (03/09/90)
In article <754@suntops.Tops.Sun.COM> cohen@santa_fe.ebay.sun.com (Michael A. Cohen) writes: > I'm not positive, but I think the reason that TOPS has the "For Sale >in US only" label is due to U.S. Law. The U.S. Gov't is very strict about >exports of computer products and software. Hmm... Anybody in Sweden can buy TOPS at any dealer. Version two was in English (program and manual); don't know about version three. The only difference seems to be the price, as usual.