🚀 go-pugleaf

rsw@cs.brown.EDU (Bob Weiner) writes:
> >> In article <iViHeB6w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (en font terrib
> > No, but you get to watch the computer perform the task, just as you get
> > to watch the plumber perform the task.  You can take notes on how the
> > software behaves, write books explaining it, tell your friends how to
> > perform the same tasks with their software, even create your own competing
> > software product to do the same things.
> 
> These latter statements simply are not true.  A number of commercial
> licenses such as GO's PenPoint operating system include a plank which
> requires that the licensee agree not to use any information gained from
> their product in the production of a competing one. If you don't agree,
> you don't get a license.  And then of course many licenses prohibit
> reverse engineering.  Whether or not these provisions are legal, they
> represent the limits that the companies want to place on use of their
> software.

And I quite agree that *those* restrictions are unreasonable.  But we're
getting off the point.


mathew

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