lkw@titan.UUCP (03/25/87)
Someone recently asked how to handle the problem of student microcomputing
software. I thought I'd share our possible solution, and pose a more
general question.
In a couple of months, we'll (finally!) be setting up several open
microcomputer labs for the use of the entire university community. Our
plan is to come up with a "best of" list of freeware/shareware for the
most common applications (WP, spreadsheet, database, terminal
emulation). Tentatively, we're planning to put all the software on one
or more disks and distribute them, for a nominal fee, through the
campus bookstore; we're still working out the final details, such as how
much the nominal fee will be, and whether we'll be legally/morally obligated
to pay licensing fees for some of the shareware we select. We've solved
the problem of more specific course-oriented material by completely
ignoring it for now; that will probably have to be dealt with by the
individual academic departments.
This is fine for the applications, but leaves us with one very
important piece of software that is NOT in the public domain: DOS.
Obviously, we are obligated to purchase a copy of MS-DOS for every PC
in the labs (these are floppy-only IBM-PC clones, by the way), and we
have done this. The big question is: how do we give each user access
to MS-DOS when they need it -- legally? We contacted Microsoft; they
don't do site licenses. Ideally, we would like these labs to be open
24 hours a day, which means that a checkout system would not be our
best answer. These machines will not be networked initially, so a
central "server" is out. The best solution we've come up with so far
is to have DOS disks "chained" to the PC's in some way, but that has a
multiplicity of obvious drawbacks, too.
This situation has to have occurred all over the country, so -- how did
YOUR school handle it? Please send e-mail replies to me, and I will
summarize to comp.edu. I've also directed followups to comp.edu only.
--
Larry Wake uucp: {ihnp4 | hplabs | psivax}!csun!lkw
CSUN Computer Center BITNET: RETPLKW@CALSTATE
Northridge, CA 91330 ARPA: RETPLKW%CALSTATE@WISCVM.WISC.EDUtr@thumper.UUCP (03/28/87)
[] Larry Wake, of CSUN Computer Center in Northridge, CA asks how to distribute copies of DOS legally. It seems to me that if the school buys a copy of DOS for each machine it will be used on, it has fulfilled its obligation. Why worry about making sure that the proper copy goes to its corresponding machine? Microsoft and IBM will get their proper royalties. I would not worry if students take out illegal copies of DOS. The ones used on your machines are legitimate. You are only watching over the use of a finite number of machines and their copies of DOS are legit. At this point, you could make a thousand copies of DOS, leave a pile at the inside of the door of the lab so each user of a machine can use DOS. You have already paid for the maximum number of copies that will be used simultaneously. -- Tom Reingold Internet: tr@bellcore.com Uucp: ..!allegra!ulysses!faline!flash!tr
ns@maccs.UUCP (Nicholas Solntseff) (04/01/87)
>Larry Wake, of CSUN Computer Center in Northridge, CA asks how to >distribute copies of DOS legally. > >Tom Reingold replies: >It seems to me that if the school buys a copy of DOS for each machine >it will be used on, it has fulfilled its obligation. >-- This is the philosophy we adopted at McMaster. We have arount 50 Pcs and each has a copy of PCDOS or MSDOS that has been paid for. We tell the studnets that taking a copy of DOS off-campus constitutes a case of academic dishonesty and will be appropriately punishable. I feel that we can do no more. Incidentally, Microsoft Canada has been making spot checks in Quebec schools and is actually offering a site license there! Nick Solntseff {ns@maccs.UUCP}
lkw@titan.UUCP (04/04/87)
This is the summary of responses to the question "how does your
university handle distributing DOS in micro labs"? The answers
probably aren't too startling: of the 5 responses, the consensus seemed
to be that once you've bought a copy per machine, your legal
responsibility is taken care of, so getting it to the students then
becomes a logistical matter. It looks like we'll probably have lab
assistants who will check out copies of DOS, which the students then
may copy, with all sorts of stipulations posted that the copies are to
be used ONLY on machines licensed for that particular version of DOS.
========================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 87 07:58:09 CST
From: mark edwards <hplabs!rutgers!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards>
We have several mic labs and a show room. The show room provides a
copy of dos for each machine, not the original. If they disappear
then they are lost, you lose the money and time that the disk cost
to copy. Since the copy of this unit was lost you make another one,
that is what the master is there for anyways. Since you have bought
a master for each machine, I see no problem with copying it and
putting it away for safe keeping.
Another method would be to have your students buy there own copy.
After all it only costs the price of an expensive textbook and
will be useful for several semesters at least. You student can
then sell it if he/she decides computing is not what they like.
mark
--
edwards@unix.macc.wisc.edu
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards
UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706
========================================
From: psivax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!seismo!rochester!ur-tut!akk2 (Atul Kacker)
What seems to have been done here at University of Rochester is that
they (the powers that be) have bought a copy of DOS for each Public PC
and that's that. The microcomputer information center here then just hands
out copies of DOS to students for free.
========================================
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 87 17:23:14 PST
From: hplabs!rutgers!trent@csvax.caltech.edu (Ray Trent)
We don't have that problem here, because all of our machines have hard
disks now, but in your case, I would suggest that you just use the
checkout system. I guarantee that within 1 week, everyone will have
their own copy of the DOS disk(s) anyway, and your problems will be
over. (believe me, fighting software piracy will cause you more trouble
than it saves you)
--
<this space for rent>
../ray\..
(trent@csvax.caltech.edu, rat@caltech.bitnet, ...seismo!cit-vax!trent)
========================================
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 87 08:21:40 EST
From: tj <hplabs!seismo!gpu.utcs.toronto.edu!tj>
always thought the best way to handle this problem was to get a board
that plugged into a slot of the IBM PC that was a ROM disk. The thing
would install itself as a ram disk as the BIOS goes out doing its
POST, then the system would boot from the ram disk which was actually
4 27512 eproms with DOS loaded into them and maybe a few other utilities
in the 256K ROM disk space available. I know there are ROM disk boards
available but I have never bother to set one up like this.
tj
========================================
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 87
From: cavrak (Steve Cavrak) [University of Vermont]
Message-Id: <8703301950.AA20815@uvm-gen.UUCP
We have several 100's of ATT-6300's. Every lab has a proctor and/or a
counselor. One duty is to "check out" a system disk. This is sort of
a soft chain. We don't worry about copying disks because every PC came
with the software and there can not be more that one user per pc.
We bought our PC-Write disks directly from QuickSoft, and next year will
also buy their quick guide. For communications, we use Kermit. The only
sticky piece of software is Turbo Pascal, but since we got a good price,
that doesn't seem to have been a problem.
We also had stickers saying "The Law is Clear ... Reproducing computer
software without proper authorization violates the U.S. Copyright Law.
It is a Federal offense." printed up and posted on all p.c.'s ... pretty
much like the library stamp ..
--
Larry Wake uucp: {ihnp4 | hplabs | psivax}!csun!lkw
CSUN Computer Center BITNET: RETPLKW@CALSTATE
Northridge, CA 91330 ARPA: RETPLKW%CALSTATE@WISCVM.WISC.EDU