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| Authored by: argee on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 03:44 PM EST |
Yes, indeed, the dawn of the NEW MICROSOFT, the HONEST
MICROSOFT, a leader in Software Ethics.
No more hiding behind EULA's, licensing vs. owning, etc.
Just rent the damn thing, and it is instantly clear who
owns what and who can do what with whatever.
Love it!
(PS: I am feeling *really* cynical this morning, if you
were to track my posts!)
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argee[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 31 2013 @ 01:42 AM EST |
The MS Office product one picked up in a shop in earlier years, you know that
physical box that came with the software installation disks and a perpetual
license to use the software that one just bought, was just that a sale bought
and sold. Unfortunately the law seemed to not quite grasp or clarify what every
ordinary person could; if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a
duck, bought and sold.
These days, where software is made available via an internet distribution
mechanism, things haven't really changed (other than the distribution has been
virtualiszed). You are still buying a product with the same or similar rights as
previously. You can make a backup of the install media and you still got a
perpetual license to use the software you just bought. And ordinary people just
clicked through the install process without reading or agreeing to any license
agreement (except the legal or obsessive compulsive amongst us). Again, the
product was bought and sold, nothing has changed. The duck is still a duck
unless your the law it seems.
What has now changed is that MS is selling a different product altogether. A
product that now has a limited duration license and where your documents may
reside somewhere in the cloud and outside your control. Some seem to view this
time limited license as renting but i wouldn't call it that. Your still buying a
product just as before. It's just that this product has a license that is
designed to break after a fixed period unless you pay a maintenance fee.
Why people would buy such a crippled product i don't know.
Why people would want to have their business documents in the cloud, i don't
know.
Why people would want to risk loosing access to, or ability to view their
documents without paying ongoing fees, i don't know.
People are funny creatures and sometimes want useless features and/or do self
destructive things. I guess it's our nature and it's probably such human
behavior that keeps MS floating in money.
If such a crippled product is proven to be popular, expect MS to offer products
with licenses that are not time limited but document limited; you can only write
100 documents @ 100pages per document (or similar and obvious variations) before
needing to pay another maintenance fee. See it as the disposable razor blade of
Office apps if you must - but hardly an innovation.
For me, there are so many free products out their that allow me to write the
documentation that i need and allow me to retail full control of, and access to,
my documents that i will never go back to MS. The cloud just doesn't interest
me.
The product has always been bought and sold by virtue of never being able to
negotiate any terms of a license when buying the product (heck one can't even
negotiate the purchase price @ the retail outlet when MS products are
concerned).
I just wish that the law would see the duck that most ordinary people see...[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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