🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BAUMGART.91Jun23150846@esquire.esquire.dpw.com> baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes:

>If you want to "use" or "test" nearly anything else in the world, you
>must pay for it first.  I would like nothing more than to walk down
>the road to my friendly Ford and GM dealers and ask that they each
>give me a car for free for, say, 6 months, or at least until I decide
>which one I prefer.  Then I'll be happy to pay for that one, assuming
>I still want a car after all.

For the last time (I wish), software and cars are NOT NOT NOT analogous.
Software manufacturers EXLICITLY state that the software isn't guaranteed 
to do anything.  If you bought a car, you'd have a FAR better chance at 
recovering damages from a car manufacturer.  There are all sorts of laws
covering "lemons" in the car industry, but your best shot at a guarantee
when you buy software is a 30-day money back guarantee.  It is MUCH easier
to find a defect in your car (though not certain, of course) in 30 days that
in your software.

You could counter with the claim that people can vote with their money, but
that simply benefits the big companies.  The little companies often live or
die on the short-term utility of their products.  If people didn't "try before
they bought" that product, I'm guessing that some of those companies wouldn't
make it.  If people bought only software that has been around for some time
period equal to the optimum "trial period", it is quite likely that only the
big companies could last that long.

In spite of the fact that I've seen many sales of software packages based on
piracy (theft if you prefer), and I've seen many failures of software packages
to live up to even their features lists, let alone marketing claims, software
IS being stolen by current definitions.  In most industries, the manufacturer
has the advantage, in the early history of that industry.  It may well be
that when regulations are improved and enforced on BOTH sides of the license,
what is currently termed "theft" will be merely "trial period" use of the
software.