Bearing Legal Clauses in Software Softly
Created | Updated May 1, 2004
Ware Soft Legal Clauses in Software.
I concider myself an ordinary computer user. The first few licence agreements I have worked through. That is, I tried to find out what they wanted to make clear. Perhaps I just understood half of it, as after a few pages the texts become such mixture of back and forth references a normal person can not get much content out of it anymore.
On average they state:
The Software is by definition their software you just tried to install. Then they define their, you, it and anything else what came to their mind that could be unclear. There must be a legion of lawyers working on all things they think you could interpretate wrong.
You do not own the software. Despite you have payed money for the box, the handout and the carrier medium from where you can install the software. You do not own the sequence of ones and zero's known as their software.
You just have a licence to use one single copy of it. And then the program does want you to use multiple instances.
They entitle you to keep one backup of the software. And after one backup failed to be read you have to buy a new licence.
You are not allowed to revese code it to obtain the source and to know what it does anyway. Perhaps they are afraid you see they have just copied most of it themself.
You are not allowed to alter any of the code of this software. If you did would it not be their software anymore?
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