why should software companies be able to tell you what you can do with YOUR property?

Question

When a company sells a product they give up all claims on that product in exchange for money. Software companies however want to have their cake and eat it to and still retain some control over something they sell. If they dont want to give up that right then why should they be allowed to sell in the first place?
Ford could say, you can buy my car but you are not allowed to share it with others to force your spouse and kids to buy their own. No car pooling allowed, no taxis, everyone buys their own. They could say, look at all the money we are missing out on from lost sales with all these pirates not buying their own cars.
If I want to use windows in my 3 computers, I bought it so thats my luck, not something for Microsoft to expoit, thats just extortion. What if everyone put conditions on everything they sold? some idiot is bound to say "oh buts its copyright its different, bla bla bla"; no brain no pain.

You are only leasing the software? Well Duh!
If I dont like it dont buy it? What a brainless answer how does that give them any legal right?
Leasing is what they call it so they can charge you for it. Ford could say they are only leasing you the car, its the same difference. why state the obvious without any thought whatsoever?

If you don't want the answer, why ask the question?
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I wanted sensible anwers, not parrots repeating something they read.
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Why aren't you allowed to copy the full text of a book and sell it or post it on the internet? Why aren't you allowed to download music from a file-sharing site? It's intellectual property.

Copyright is something that was created to protect certain properties for certain reasons, simply saying something has had that law applied to it doesnt mean it should have that law applies to it. Ford could copyright the intellectual property of their car and just "lease it to you", dont like it dont buy it; same difference.

the restrictions I addressed were for home use or even business use, of installing on multiple computers not copying software to sell, so nothing to do with books or copyrighting music or movies.
If a business has 100 computers why shouldnt it use just one copy to install on every machine? Much better for the enviroment
All these companies that are protected by copyright are laughing all the way to the bank. Poor us we are loosing millions we are just poor billionaires instead of trillionaires, my lear jet is solid gold, it should be platinum.

What is it you people dont get about this question? Why tell me something that I have already said I already know? You are just purchasing the liscence not the software itself? THATS THE PROBLEM how can they get away with that, so why just state the obvious?

Mr Pitt, nothing invalid with my analogy just your very poor comprehension skills. Bill Gates is worth a lot more than ford so your other point is invalid and nothing to do with the point anyway, just emotional claptrap that sounds like it means something but totally irrelevant and pointless.
I said MY computer not my friends, so try reading what is written. Many families buy one car to share, ford could stop this and say sorry its for one driver only you cant use it for three drivers just as microsoft says you cant use their product for 3 computers.
This is merely about using one product for 3 applications, not about copying and redistribution amongst friends or whoever.

"Your analogy isn't really valid. A better one is that there is nothing stopping your friends from coming over and using windows on your computer, much like there is nothing stopping you from giving them rides or lending them your car"

No that has nothing to do with it thats a stupid analogy because its doesnt have anything to do with anything. I have 3 family members each with a computer. There is nothing stopping anyone using those computers, there is only a law stopping the one software going into all three.

Answer 1

Good point, thank you, it's not a question and there is no answer, it is just pure exploitation and greed

Answer 2

I'm sure if Microsoft could get away with charging as much as a Ford costs for Windows, or if they could somehow force you to put money into Windows every week in order to use it (like gas in a car) they wouldn't have a problem letting you use it on multiple computers.

Your analogy isn't really valid. A better one is that there is nothing stopping your friends from coming over and using windows on your computer, much like there is nothing stopping you from giving them rides or lending them your car. Either way, only one person is using Windows (or driving your car) at a time. If you were somehow able to buy a car and give your friends perfect copies of that car, you better believe Ford would have a problem with that.

Answer 3

I'm not so sure about the analogy either. Software falls under the "intellectual property" whereas cars and trucks fall under "personal property." Each is subject to different laws. So you may be comparing apples and oranges on that one.

License agreements are part protection for the software company/part monopoly on a piece of software. In the case of windows, other companies could try to make an operating system, but it would be too difficult considering the economies of scale windows enjoys. I would love to see windows drop the prices of their operating systems, however, I do believe in intellectual property rights to an extent. Furthermore, it may be that windows is priced right given all that it can do.

Answer 4

This all stems from books.

Imagine a book was written and published....the publisher ageed to pay the author $0.30 for each copy that was sold.

Another publisher bought one copy, and started printing it to sell for 15 cents less...but they didn't have to pay the author.

almost everyone who bought the book (hundreds of thousands of people) bought the 15 cents cheaper version, because it looked the same and saved them money.

The writer of the book, who spent 500 hours writing it (including lots of time and money spent researching it) got a total of $1000....less than two dollars an hour.

Because of that, he...a brilliant writer, decided to never write another book.

Soon, no-one was writing anything, because they couldn't get paid for it.

Software is the same, but more so, because software (like adobe photoshop) takes many people thousands of hours to write, but it can be copied for less than a dollar.

if everyone used copied software, no-one would ever write any software.

Same with movies. If you could make a million copies of a movie and sell them to movie theatres, no-one would ever be able to make movies that cost more than a few thousand dollars to make.

While it is absurd to put conditions on usage, it is not absurd to disallow copying and distribution.

That's why it is legal to make copies of music for your own use if you bought it, but not legal to give those copies to others.

I agree with you that some restrictions on software use are stupid. If you have three computers in your home, it makes sense that you can use your copies of windows on all three.

Answer 5

"some idiot is bound to say 'oh buts its copyright its different, bla bla bla' "

If you don't want the answer, why ask the question?

Why aren't you allowed to copy the full text of a book and sell it or post it on the internet? Why aren't you allowed to download music from a file-sharing site? It's intellectual property.

I guess.

Answer 6

Some day when your boss comes to you and says: it is lay off time - everyone decided to rip off our 2 years of research and developement and make copies for free of our (insert your job here) and give them to their friends. 5 employees and 100's of thousands of dollars down the tube. Bye and do not let the door hit your *ss on the way out.
Look China Rips everything they can get their hands on and sells it for less then we can make it. And I do not mean just sotfware. The day they Outsource your job to the rip off artists then you may have a clue.

Answer 7

It is their property and you purchase only the rights to use it as they permit. You pay more for using it in more ways and with more computers. Read the licensing agreement. If you don't like it then don't buy it.

There is no law (yet) that says you have to have a computer. If you want one you take what you can and live with it.

Answer 8

You are basically only leasing software. They are selling you the use of the software, not the software itself.