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Subject:RE: Piracy: Home vs. Work Computers From:"House, Barry" <BHouse -at- lrs -dot- com> To:'TECHWR-L' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:19:33 -0500
During the install process on most modern software, there's a dialog box
containing the full license agreement for that software. That agreement will
spell out exactly what the manufacturer's terms of use are.
Back in my Mac days (the late 80's, when you actually had to read the
license agreement on a piece of PAPER), Microsoft's license agreement for
Excel and Word explicitly gave the end user the right to install the
software on two different computers as long as those computers were not in
use at the same time--so you could install your work software on your home
computer or a laptop assuming those machines would not be in use at the same
time.
A lot of the software I work with now includes a license agreement
explicitly stating that the software is to be installed on a single
computer. Many of these agreements go ahead and define what is meant by "a
single computer." I don't read license agreements as closely as I used to
because my employer has a really good support department full of people who
are tasked with reading those agreements. But if you really want to know how
free you are to install the software you bought (or, technically, the
software you licensed), read the agreement.
Barry House
> -----Original Message-----
> From: skwpt [SMTP:skwpt -at- yahoo -dot- com]
> Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 11:04 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Piracy: Home vs. Work Computers
>
> This may be a ridiculous question, but back to the
> definition of a single "user..."
>
> A former company let me take software home to install
> on my personal computer. Our IT department was rabid
> against illegal installations and yet they assured me
> that, since I often worked at home and needed the same
> software I enjoyed on my desktop at work, I was not
> breaking any laws because both computers would not be
> running at the same time. Does anyone know if there is
> any truth to this?
>
> Kelly
>
>
