Help Desk

One License To Rule Them All

Comic Transcript

VIKTOR SCHRECK: Jim, when any customer agrees to the license agreement printed in the package that comes with a Nifty Doorways install CD, and then agrees to it again during the installation routine, the customer enters into a business contract with Ubersoft. This contract gives the customer a limited right to use the intellectual property of Ubersoft — that is to say, Nifty Doorways — for his or her won purposes, so long as the customer meets his or her contractual obligations.

VIKTOR SCHRECK: But for far too long people have been treating each release of our software as a separate entity — as if, for example, Nifty Doorways 99 and Nifty Doorways 2001: An Operating System Odyssey were different programs, and covered under separate contracts. This is not the case.

JIM WASHINGTON: Nifty Doorways 99 and Nifty Doorways 2001 are the same program?

VIKTOR SCHRECK: Contractually speaking, Nifty Doorways 2001 is an enhancement to a core product, Nifty Doorways, and when it was released it BECAME Nifty Doorways. Any contractual rights regarding the use of Nifty Doorways at that point applied to ND 2001 and no other product.

VIKTOR SCHRECK: Similarly, when Nifty Doorways Verandah was released, it became Nifty Doorways, and any contractual rights regarding the use of Nifty Doorways applied to it, and it alone. So anyone using any other version is in violation of their End User License Agreement, and is engaging in software piracy.

JIM WASHINGTON: How does that threaten the security of the United States?

VIKTOR SCHRECK: It just does.

NEWS TICKERTAPE: Breaking: use of Linux constitutes “aiding and abetting the enemies of the free market” :: Critics claim violent video games responsible for tooth decay, gingivitis, male pattern baldness ::

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