[hackerspaces] Software Licensing

[tetsu yatsu]

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.

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.

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?)

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.



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?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20091111/9c3d0361/attachment.html>