"I accept" button

[Robert E. Jones, III]

At 06:21 PM 4/25/2002 -0700, David Johnson wrote:
> > You do not aquire a piece of software, you just aquire a right to use it
> > in certain ways.
>
>Not according to the US Commercial Code, as I understand it. If you walk into
>a store and purchase a shrink-wrapped copy of WindowsXP (as an example), you
>are the legal owner of that -copy-. According to Copyright law, you have the
>right to use any software which you have a legal copy of. Otherwise, what is
>that $109.99 I paid for? A fancy box and childish manual?

Actually, there is some question about whether or not the UCC applies to 
software.  Hence the big debate over the inclusion of Section 2B (the 
precursor to  UCITA) that was supposed to fold software licensing into the UCC.

Personally, I think UCC applies only to sale of the physical media itself, 
but does not apply to the license or the licensing of the software itself 
and that copyright law governs the right to use software.  Whenever I 
negotiate software licenses, for either the publisher or the user, I try to 
disclaim the UCC.

However, its a matter that is open for debate.

Rob Jones

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