Thanks for the responses. Any thoughts on Virtual Machines? <br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 1:38 PM, tetsu yatsu <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tetsuharu@gmail.com">tetsuharu@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>Members and non-members are asking that we get proprietary software on our systems, like Adobe CS3, Windows XP, and OSX. I've actually been exclusively using open-source software the past few years, and didn't really consider that someone would want to run these things.</div>
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<div>Naturally, they feel that being a 'hacker'space, we have no concept of intellectual property and have no problems stealing software and installing pirated, potentially infected software on our lab computers. But, being a nonprofit, we are going to get audited at some point, and I wouldn't want a bunch of bootleg installs of Windows to ruin our message.</div>
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<div>Likewise, a lot of people try to offer us pirated software and MSDN access. (Is it legal to share MSDN access? Shouldn't we just get our own MSDN account?)</div>
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<div>So far, I'm considering a policy where we only install software we have valid licenses for on lab computers, hopefully with a non-profit discount, but members may run whatever they want on their own machines they bring in since the space is not liable. </div>
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<div>I know some of you are very supportive of changes in intellectual property laws, but those of us following the laws until then, any advice?</div></blockquote></div><br>