Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 18:21:33 -0400 From: dennis@etinc.com (Dennis) To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ISP's are being sued Message-ID: <199608142221.SAA08302@etinc.com>
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M. Dillon writes... >>>More ISPCON info. >>>There was a guy there who claims to know these things and he says that >>>Netscape is looking at swooping down on illegal copies of its software. >>>He also claims that Trumpet *IS* definitely going to swoop down. > >>Actually they both have already done so. Trumpet sued the largest >>ISP in Australia and won, and is targeting some in the U.S. now. >>Netscape has sent requests for payment to a number of ISP's >>and told them they had to pay for all copies they ever distributed. > >The above 4 lines come from a different source than my info and in fact >from a person who should be even closer to this stuff. So it looks like a >LOT of ISP's are going to receive some big bills and either pay them or go >broke. The prices for legal copies of Netscape are not that bad if you go >to CCSWEB, Usfulware or Intercon. > It seems that in this country (US), it would be difficult for anyone to sue for distributing something that was readily available as free, particularly older versions which were deemed "beta". Its obvious that Netscapes strategy was rather self-serving in becoming widely-used, and any decent lawyer should be able to argue that point. As for shareware, I dont see how Trumpet could sue for distributing the product, as the goal of shareware is to get wide-distribution. The product clearly displays the shareware message when your run it...it is the end-users responsibility to pay the user fee, unless of course the ISP implies that they would foot the bill in exchange for signing up with them Dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25 for BSD/OS, FreeBSD and LINUX
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