[plug] IE Download

[James Devenish]

In message <Pine.LNX.4.44.0310220058370.27968-100000 at ob.golden.wattle.id.au>
on Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 01:12:45AM +0800, Mike Holland wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, Ben Jensz wrote:
> > Basically after some reading up on MS' legal stuff about file downloads, 
> > it appears we aren't supposed to mirror MS stuff, i.e. redistribute any 
> 
> And if Microsoft told you to jump off a cliff ... ?
> Come on, you *know* all that junk in the click-wraps is utterly 
> unenforceable, illegal, and a complete bluff. Well, some of it anyway.

Look...you might not like Microsoft because of its tactics (I don't like
it because it seems to spread crap software throughout the world), but
what about basic legal respect? I don't dispute that most EULAs are
effectively "unenforceable, illegal, and a complete bluff". But if you
*ignore* the EULA *altogether* then what you're left with, in simplistic
terms, is (a) the software and (b) the statement "Copyright xxxx
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." The EULA was the only thing
granting permission to copy Microsoft's work. If you trash the EULA,
*surely* you need to seek some other permission---from Microsoft---to
copy the files. Is it likely that Microsoft would grant such permission
in the absence of a contract/EULA? Is it worth 3FL's effort to try?

PS. I have no legal qualifications, training, or intuition, so I am
simply applying some simple principles to software that I have come to
expect from dealing with other works. Copyright is certainly not a
simple area, let alone EULAs, but surely you can't ignore copyright
just because "it's Microsoft and the EULA is a joke".


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