gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (John R. Gersh) (06/03/89)
Here is a software ownership/licensing issue that I have not seen
addressed anywhere:
After I buy an upgrade to a program, how many copies do I own
(or have I licensed)?
That is the question in its most general form; obviously there are many
aspects to possible answers. The question comes up because I am
temporarily the owner of two Macs, and I may sell one. Can I populate
(and maybe sell) one of them with lots of version [n-1] programs while
the other is full of version [n]?
Clearly this depends (legally) on the specifics of the licensing
agreement for each program. Generally, though, they don't seem to
address the issue.
The answer also seems to depend on the mechanism of the upgrade, from an
ethical point of view. To give examples from various points of a
spectrum:
(1) Ashton-Tate just mailed out FullWrite v.1.1. It is portrayed as a
maintenance update, free to all registered users. "On File" is written
in the serial number blank on the disk. No doubt about it here, I have
one and only one copy; I shouldn't run v.1.0 one machine and v.1.1 on
another.
(2) I just ordered Lookup v.2.0 from Working Software. This cost some
money, and they wanted the original v.1.0c disk back. This is a new
version number to the left of the decimal, and some money changed hands,
but the mandated return of the disk is crucial, I think. I still have
only one copy.
(3) I recently upgraded MacWrite 5.0 to Macwrite II 1.0 from Claris. No
disk went back, and this is an entirely new program. Version numbering
was restarted, new file type and creator codes are involved. The
licensing agreement pretty clearly deals only with the software actually
contained in the MacWrite II package. I would maintain that this case
involves a reduced price for a new program to users of the old one. I
think that I now have licensed _both_ Macwrite 5.0 and MacWrite II 1.0,
and I can run both of them or sell one.
Obviously, other arrangements might fall between these cases.
Anybody have any ideas or guidance on the subject?
-John Gersh
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