jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (06/04/87)
As everyone knows, big corporations have lawyers, if for no other
reason to scare off the lawyers at other big corporations and to
squash pesky little corporations that don't have lawyers.
Now everyone knows lawyers are well paid, and sometimes they
feel it necessary to show they are earning their salary.
So with the 'Look and Feel' lawsuit settled against GEM, Apple's
lawyers had some time on their hands to change the licensing agreements
that developers must enter into to distribute their software on
boot disks for the Apple II and Macintosh.
Suppose you are with ABC Corporation, and (with apologies to Silicon Beach
Software, Inc.) you market 'SuperDuper', and wish to license the
System Installation Disk (System/Finder/Font/DA Mover)
and the Printer Installation Disk (LaserWriter/ImageWriter, etc.)
Clause 9 of form TD001-112886 ('Software License Agreement') requires
that ABC place into 'a conspicuous place in the manual' this statement:
System, Finder, ImageWriter (etc.) are copyrighted programs
of Apple Computer, Inc. licensed to ABC Corp. to distribute for use
only in combination with SuperDuper. Apple Software shall not be
copied onto another diskette (except for achive purposes) or
into memory unless as part of the execution of SuperDuper. When
SuperDuper has completed execution Apple Software shall not
be used by any other program.
This means the space devoted to boot disks is worthless for the 75%
of software buyers who own a hard disk, because: you cannot copy the
System file or printer driver to your hard disk.
Now let's ask some questions:
1. What does using mean? Does this mean you cannot use a
third-party DA from within the Finder?
2. How does a developer that requires a particular System version
distribute it? Suppose SuperDuper requires > 800K of disk
space to work properly; the application is 600K. Now suppose
that it requires System 4.9 or Laserwriter 3.7 to work without
crashing. Does he tell his hard disk customers (95% of his
revenue base) that they must boot from the floppy each time?
3. Is this due to an administrative/technical problem that Apple
hasn't gotten around to fixing, that of some programmers
distributing flaky pre-release system software that crashes
on users? You could ban developers from shipping pre-release
system software...
4. Did they find a loophole that prohibited you from taking your
System file from Apple to an Atari or a Japanese Mac, but didn't
prohibit the use of your Microsoft-supplied one?
5. Does Apple have plans to develop a channel for distributing
System/Finder updates for those people who rely on
software developers for new system disks? As I'm sure
many people will attest, there are many Apple dealers to
do something as non-remunerative as copy a new system file
for some chintzy one-time customer?
6. Perhaps Apple plans on selling their System/Finder in the future,
say in conjunction with the rumored 'Juggler' project. This means
that even more users will be using old, obsolete system software
with known bugs than today.
7. Does anyone have a plan to enforce this? (on the users, not the
developers...) I mean, in a country with a few 100,000 pirated
copies of copy-protected Lotus 1-2-3, what's the chance of these
statements having a meaningful effect.
Just thought I'd warn all you users, so you don't commit a felony
tomorrow. :-)
--
Joel West
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel if I ever fix news)
jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you mustolson@endor.UUCP (06/04/87)
In article <3272@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) writes: >Suppose you are with ABC Corporation... > >Clause 9 of form TD001-112886 ('Software License Agreement') requires >that ABC place into 'a conspicuous place in the manual' this statement: > > System, Finder, ImageWriter (etc.) are copyrighted programs > of Apple Computer, Inc. licensed to ABC Corp. to distribute for use > only in combination with SuperDuper. Apple Software shall not be > copied onto another diskette (except for achive purposes) or > into memory unless as part of the execution of SuperDuper. When > SuperDuper has completed execution Apple Software shall not > be used by any other program. > This, like so much else legalese, is clearly intended to be used against ABC Corporation in situations not clearly spelled out in the clause. For instance, if SuperDuper were a program that takes a Mac disk and translates it into an Atari ST disk (for the MagicSac Mac emulator, say), and it is distributed with the System and Finder under the terms of this clause, and it copies the System and Finder to an ST disk, which is then used on the MagicSac. This violates the above two ways: it copies System and Finder to another disk for use other than the execution of SuperDuper (i.e., for use with the MagicSac [apple] ROMs and patches), and after SuperDuper terminates, Apple software may continue to be used (in the grand scheme of things). Now, in fact, the MagicSac people don't distribute the Mac-to-ST (serial port) translator with System and Finder, so they probably don't worry too much. Also, they either (1) have a deal with Apple whereby Apple dealers will sell MagicSac owners Mac ROMs, or (2) the situation falls under some incredibly old anti-trust anti-bundling ruling about how IBM can't refuse to sell their software to IBM (mainframe) compatible computer owners (like Amdahls, I think). One other point I'd like to make is that the owners of Macintosh computers have a liscense to use the System and Finder (only on one machine, etc., blah, etc.), so users don't really have to worry about that clause. -Eric
jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) (06/05/87)
In article <2191@husc6.UUCP>, olson@endor.harvard.edu (Eric Olson) writes: | This, like so much else legalese, is clearly intended to be used against | ABC Corporation in situations not clearly spelled out in the clause. For | instance, if SuperDuper were a program that takes a Mac disk and translates | it into an Atari ST disk (for the MagicSac Mac emulator, say), and it is | distributed with the System and Finder under the terms of this clause, and | it copies the System and Finder to an ST disk, which is then used on the | MagicSac. Maybe. But Apple controls who gets a license and three guesses as to whether MagicSac would be allowed to get one. Also, they have different language that covers this problem in the MacApp license: it says your code has to be for a Macintosh. I'm sure they could have said: System and Finder are licensed for use only with Macintosh computers made by Apple Computer, Inc. -- Joel West {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel if I ever fix news) jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you must
tim@ism780c.UUCP (06/08/87)
When Deluxe Music Construction Set first came out, the had an
interesting mistake in the manual. They used the notice about
System and Finder from the Pinball Construction Set. Thus, it
was illegal to boot the DMCS disk, and since it was copy protected,
you could not move DMCS to another disk.
--
Tim Smith "Well if you want to say yes, say yes
{seismo,sdcrdcf}!ism780c!tim And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are"