[hackerspaces] Software Licensing

[tetsu yatsu]

I have a lot of Windows XP serials I am never going to use that came with
laptops I've purchased.  Is a valid registered serial all I need?  Can you
transfer registration of a serial to sell your authorized copy of XP?

I also ask because people have been offering their box-sets to me of XP Home
and XP Pro, but I've been reluctant since I don't know if they're already
installed somewhere, or how the Intellectual Property police & IRS go about
verifying legitimacy.

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Eric Michaud <michaud.eric.c at gmail.com>wrote:

> The rule of the land at Pumping Station: One is, and is pretty easy to
> adhere to. Legally Licensed Software. ONLY! PERIOD! End of Story!
>
> If someone wants to run something proprietary, then can of course procure
> it any way they legally see fit.
>
> So that covers anything GPL'd or otherwise.
>
> Example:
>
> Right now Autodesk is doing a student rate, either free, or around 150$ for
> AutoCAD Inventor. I'm looking into it for a few projects, because SketchUp,
> even Sketchup Pro doesn't do a lot of the things I'm looking to do. Also it
> just has the polish that the free don't currently have for engineering CAD.
>
> Theory:
>
> I know that might come as a surprise to some on this list , but here's the
> thing, we have a bunch of legal copies of XP around since not everyone uses
> them when they got goes into a pool. And/or people pitch in for specific
> software if it's not readily accessible or they are not writing new code
> themselves. It's a matter of legality and convenience. If you want to try
> and take a run and do it without that your chances *astronomical* fees
> (for lawyers and back paying for copies) if you didn't buy it legally in the
> first place. I would love all software to be free as in beer, but you do
> have to notice something about open source, very often is free as in freedom
> to change the code, not free as in beer. People just got to eat sometimes
> and pay rent.
>
> As an aside:
>
> I personally run Ubuntu on most my things systems except for servers
> running some form of *BSD or otherwise, but until we have enough clout to
> say we're not going buy or use X until you do Y, that won't change. It's
> just simple economics. When we make it more enticing to have them give away
> the software, that means we've been able to provide another way for someone
> to earn a living. That's an idea I can get behind. Creative ways to approach
> business without gouging. Which means people can work on software without
> the normal issues that might have come with it previously.
>
> New Theory:
>
> I'm for the ideal of "Bits for Free but Pay for Atoms". Even though bits
> aren't really free.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -Eric.
>
>   On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 12:38 PM, tetsu yatsu <tetsuharu at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>   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?
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>
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