What would Galt think of Software Licenses?

Posted by Hiraghm 12 years, 4 months ago to Technology
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I just have a fundamental problem with buying a piece of software and then having the developer, or worse, Microsoft/Apple, tell me how I can use it.
A ZDNet article just upped the number of devices you can install an app on from their store from 5 to 81. The issue for me isn't the number of devices, but why they should have any say once I buy it.

Note that this model of app store vs buying actual hardcopy, is something Microsoft et al have been pushing for for decades. I sincerely believe it was Bill Gates' dream to turn your computer in to a dumb, internet terminal; a device, whose content, like television, is completely controlled at their end.
I didn't get interested in computers to sit in front of it and use what was spoon-fed to me. And the trend towards authoritarian control of software ticks me off.

Try to imagine Hank Rearden trying to sell some of his metal to Taggart Transcontinental and then trying to tell them they can't pull the rails from the John Galt Line to use on other parts of the railroad...



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  • Posted by Lucky 12 years, 4 months ago
    Perhaps you have not bought it but you have paid for a license to use it under specified conditions.
    Find out who the owner is of one of those apps, ask them, how much would you sell it for?
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  • Posted by khalling 12 years, 4 months ago
    I just saw this. Unfortunately, the reason software is licensed, is because the UCC(Uniform Commercial Code) required every commercial product sold come with certain warranties. No software at that time or today could meet these warranties. So the solution was to license, which took it outside the UCC's control. I agree that this has caused all sorts of problems. It is another example of unintended consequences.
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