From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 27080 invoked by alias); 22 Apr 2002 14:14:08 -0000 Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help@cygwin.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner@cygwin.com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin@cygwin.com Received: (qmail 27065 invoked from network); 22 Apr 2002 14:14:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO uhura.concentric.net) (206.173.118.93) by sources.redhat.com with SMTP; 22 Apr 2002 14:14:05 -0000 Received: from cliff.concentric.net (cliff.concentric.net [206.173.118.90]) by uhura.concentric.net [Concentric SMTP Routing 1.0] id g3MEE2B11431 for ; Mon, 22 Apr 2002 10:14:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Clemens.cris.com (da003d0710.sjc-ca.osd.concentric.net [64.1.2.199]) by cliff.concentric.net (8.9.1a) id KAA10216; Mon, 22 Apr 2002 10:13:05 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.2.20020421182427.0260fd80@pop3.cris.com> X-Sender: rrschulz@pop3.cris.com Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 07:14:00 -0000 To: cygwin@cygwin.com From: Randall R Schulz Subject: Re: Is Cygwin legal under Windows XP? In-Reply-To: <87n0vwlf0m.fsf@liliwhite.renaissance.oasis> References: <"Michael D. Crawford"'s message of "Sun, 21 Apr 2002 19:50:03 -0500"> <3CC35E3B.3060306@goingware.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-SW-Source: 2002-04/txt/msg01192.txt.bz2 Elizabeth, Most commercial, non-open-source software is not sold outright, only the right to use it is. While it's true that not all contracts and license agreements are legal and / or enforceable, if you agreed to it, which you had to do to accomplish installation, then unless you bring some legal action, you're bound by it. Sure, the computer is yours to do with as you please, but applications that run under an operating system are not self-contained and do not stand alone--they make use of the OS. An apt analogy might be a rental agreement between a tenant and a landlord. Both parties have some rights, and the landlord's rights include the right to place certain restrictions on what the tenants may do within the rented property. I am not a lawyer (with all that implies about the foregoing), but in many ways, the law has a logic of its own. It happens to be a logic that often seems confusing or even bewildering to lay people and most especially to very logicall types such as engineers and scientists, but that's how it is. I know one thing, I'll never switch to XP. The thought of entering into a subscription relationship with Microsoft for something as critical as the OS on which I rely so heavily is simply unacceptable to me. When I move on from Windows 2000 for whatever reason, it'll be to Linux (or Darwin, Solaris, *BSD or possibly even MacOS on suitable hardware). Frankly, I'll be happy to turn my back on MS operating systems. Were it not for a former employer's demands (and Cygwin), I wouldn't be using Windows in the first place. Randall Schulz Mountain View, CA US At 18:04 2002-04-21, Elizabeth Barham wrote: >This whole thing seems kind of iffy in regards to Microsoft's position. >While Microsoft has some authority, consumers do too and Windows XP's EULA >may violate some consumer rights (I don't know of any off hand, though). >But even if it doesn't violate any at the moment, it violates what I >consider my own "consumer rights" - I have the right to run any program I >want to on any computer I own, including Microsoft Operating Systems. > >And what is this EULA anyway? If I purchase software, do I or do I not own >the software? And can I or can I not do anything I want to with it - I >mean, it's mine and they sold it to me. Or am I "leasing" the software >from someone? > >It's one thing for an EULA to say, "You may have one copy of this piece of >software running on at most one computer at any time," but another thing >for it to say what I can use the software for. > >Elizabeth -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/