Message-ID: <20030514153353.7802.qmail@linuxmail.org>
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From: "Dean McEwan" <dean_mcewan@linuxmail.org>
To: root@chaos.analogic.com
Cc: alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 15:33:50 +0000
Subject: Re: Digital Rights Management - An idea (limited lease, renting,
    expiration, verification) NON HARDWARE BASED.
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
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> The worst problem with expiring software is that a
> company, operating in good faith, can be forced out
> of business because if it.

  You shouldn't buy software from crappy "on_last_legs" 
companies.

> Lets say that I have a company called BestInTheWorld.
> Because I make the best data-base software in the world,
> a lot of companies purchase a license to use this
> software. The software expires in a year. This is no
> problem because The software renewal is cheap. Soon
> every company in Silicon Valley uses my software.
> The company is going strong and needs to expand. It
> issues public stock.
> 
> Al Qaeda

Lets stop there eh? AL <self snipped>QAEDA ? ANY GOV.T 
would let them buy stock? Controlling Stock ???

 purchases controlling interest in the company
> and closes it. In one year, everybody in Silicon Valley
> is out of work because all the company's software
> stopped working.

Say M$ bought company that has "we can change this license 
at any time
for this version of software" written in its license, M$ 
changes it and BOOM! Software now costs another $400,000
to use... 

My DRM would not allow this... Good Eh?

Also GPL sources wouldn't work in proprietary work(s).
 
> 
> Bad joke? Hell no. Digital thought about short-term
> leasing of their software when they introduced LMF,
> the license management facility. Once Digtal's lawyers
> got involved, a patch was sent to everbody making damn
> sure that the "expiration" capability was removed.
> Nevertheless, FTP Software, that made TCP/IP to DECNET
> sofware, continued to have software that expired.
> 
> Basically, in many states in the USA, you can't sell or
> lease something that will become worthless or unusable if
> the seller or leasor no longer exists. If the renter makes
> a good-faith effort to pay the rent, the renter continues
> to enjoy use of the leased property. Creating property that
> doesn't allow this violates common law.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dick Johnson
> Penguin : Linux version 2.4.20 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips).
> Why is the government concerned about the lunatic fringe? Think about it.
> 

-- 
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