minitab (like most products) comes in a sealed box with shrinkwrap on it
... now, INside the box are manuals (the one i got anyway) and the SEALED
cd ...
now, there is nothing on the outside SHRUNKWRAPPED box ... that states the
"use" conditions ... it appears only on the SEALED cd wrapper ... it says:
"IMPORTANT: if you do not accept the terms of the license agreement (SEE
PAGE ii OF THE "MEET MINITAB") ... you should promptly returned the
UNOPENED PRODUCT for a refund
now, let's think about this ...
to READ this see page ii of the MEET MINITAB book ... which is INside the
shrinkwrapped box ... you have to remove the shrinkwrap ... AND BEFORE
OPENING THE ACTUAL SOFTWARE CD ... read the license agreement ...
WHAT IF YOU HAVE NOT OPENED THE SHRINKWRAPPED BOX????
i contend you have NOT agreed nor DISagreed with the license agreement and
therefore canNOT be held in violation of the copyright agreement ... that
you have neither seen nor agreed/disagreed to ...
i know this is picky ... but, i say this is correct
but beyond all of this nitty gritty ... minitab wants to sell products and
have people use products that they buy ... and while a person for whatever
reason might have bought n copies (and i was never clear for the original
poster WHY he had these multiple copies ???) ... what advantage to minitab
would be gained by NOT letting the purchaser resell them to others ... as
long as the exchange is for the same price as he/she paid? additional
profit is not being realized? what is the violation of copyright issue here?
unless people actually use the product ... then there is a termination of
that most important "line of sales potential" ... the referrer ... so, if
30 or 60 UNused FRESH boxes of rel 12 of minitab sit ... there are that
many FEWER people who will use the product and potentially, be in a
position of sending more business minitab's way ...
at the moment, we don't have all the facts of this particular case ... all
we know is that the poster said that he had n unopened boxes ... and wanted
to rid himself of them at (presumably) the price he paid (from where i
don't know) for them ...
i see nothing different in this situation, regardless of what the license
agreement says ... between buying minitab in sealed boxes and buying 40
copies of this weeks time magazine ... and selling them for the price i
paid ...
> Penn State may well have a contract to let them return unopened
>software - and J. Random Punter can usually _return_ unopened software
>for a refund (that's usually part of the small print about opening the
>shrunkwrap being the moral equivalent of a contract signed in blood).
see my comments above about shrinkwrap and where the license to be read is ...
>But that does not extend to anybody not an Authorized Reseller being
>allowed to sell the silly things to a third party for his/her own price.
as far as i know, there is NO fixed price for any product ... that would be
price fixing which is illegal ... there is no list price on the box for
minitab ... and it sells for different prices at different schools ... and
sells for different prices depending on whether it is academic or non
academic ... i am not sure what you point is about his/her own price ...
there is NO fixed price ... minitab's or anyone else's ...
it is a fee market ... and if a person wants to pay the 90 bucks i think
was listed ... that is his or her decision ...
that's why the effort at enforcing ticket scalping is such a wasted effort
... if there is some (pardon the expression) misguided alumnus who at the
last minute wants to buy a ticket outside of beaver stadium for 100 bucks
... which might be 2/3 times the stamped price ... i would say that this
person has made a stupid decision but ... not illegal ... nor the person
who sells the ticket either ... not that i am recommending someone try to
"scalp" tickets outside of beaver stadium .... they actually have ticket
police to catch you!
> The buyer can probably sell the media - if erased - and probably the
>box and manuals, although I (ObDisclaimer: who am not a lawyer) do not
>see any legal reason why the contract could not be extended to cover
>these if the company were vindictive enough.
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