On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 08:22:28 -0700, "Tucker, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > So what happens if Firestone decides to give away a bunch of defective > tires that fall apart at 50MPH ??? <snip>
Interesting comment. I go back and forth on this issue. With software, users knowingly give up any warranty that the software they are licensing will work in any way. With tires, I believe the government would hold Firestone accountable for some issues even if "users" had signed a "license" negating the tires "warranty." So why hasn't this happened in software, particularly since the gov't is such a big customer? Ironically, having a "warranty" is usually a huge selling point for most things. How many of us would buy a new car (or new anything else) without a warranty of some sort? Without a warranty, we would probably just buy used stuff for less money. I believe that competition is the key here. Example: if Microsoft was prohibited by law from preventing people from selling an instance of Windows that they owned, then an aftermarket for Windows would exist where the software was cheaper than buying it new. *But* I would not get a warranty or support from Microsoft. That would be the incentive to buy new from Microsoft rather than from the aftermarket. The trouble comes when people give *copies* away (because copying is "free") instead of the actual instance they purchased. This argument also applies to music/video content. I think DRM will really take off only if the *sole* purpose was to enforce a user's ability to resell (or give away) electronic media in such a way that they couldn't use it anymore. So far, content creators have tried to design DRM to limit how a purchaser can use the content instead of just enforcing "normal" copyright law. It is harder to do DRM this way. However, I think Apple got really close with their iTunes Music Store. A few weeks ago, some guy was able to resell a song he purchased by giving the buyer his account information. If Apple made it easy to resell without copying, they'd be right on. --Dan ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
