🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jun23.174201.21401@r-node.gts.org> david@r-node.gts.org (Gerald Abshez) writes:
>In article <1992Jun23.024526.8544@unlv.edu> slumos@unlv.edu (Steve Lumos) writes:
>>>    $99 for dos owners
>>>    $139 for everyone else (I guess that's most folks...)
>>
>>I don't think that *most* folks steal DOS. I would hope that *most*
>>folks get a version of DOS with their machines. While there are many
>>who steal later versions of DOS, I don't think that it is most. I
>>think it is pretty fair, they will accept ANY version of DOS, they
>>could have decided to accept only PC-DOS which is what they did with
>>1.x upgrades...
>
>Well, getting a version with your machine doesn't mean you didn't steal
>it. Many independent computer makers (NOT the biggies) will give away
>or sell you DOS for a certain price
>
>Gerald.

Small quibble here.  What computer stores will do, if the customer indicates
an unwillingness to buy DOS with their machine, is to format the hard drive
and copy over the system files to make the machine bootable.  This does not
violate any copyright and is not the same as giving the customer DOS.  It has
always been legal to copy the system files onto a disk to make the disk 
bootable and back in the days before hard drives it was a common practice.
I don't know how many people then go and steal the rest of the DOS files,
but consider the fact that prior to DOS 5.0 the only way you get legally
get DOS (at least MS or PC DOS) was to buy it with a machine, and draw your 
own conclusions

.pw