(no subject)

[Don Russell]

Paul Howarth wrote:
> kishore chalakkal wrote:
> 
>> (UN)justice of microsoft:
>>
>> In a little state of India (kerala) microsoft made a contract 3 years 
>> ago with the education dept. to use MS products in schools, obviuosly 
>> without the permission to copy software. Both Win e Linux were in 
>> curriculum. Following the contract, the govt gave training to teachers 
>> in win ( and being a poor state, copied the software.) MS was silent 
>> of this well known fact till the govt. kicked out linux from schools. 
>> Now they are facing a case from MS. but the whole infrastructure is in 
>> win. Poor guys...  (source: www.deepika.com)
> 
> 
> Where's the injustice here? Software was copied in violation of the 
> license terms and the consequences are now being faced. If the MS 
> software couldn't be afforded legally, it shouldn't have been selected 
> in the first place.

I agree, the rules were broken and MS is exercising their right to 
enforce them. When software is pirated, you roll the dice and take your 
chances. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

However, an interesting point made by the original poster is "MS was 
silent of this well known fact..."

How long did MS knowingly ignore the infraction? (And can you prove it?) 
Sometimes the right to take action is forfeit when too much time has 
gone by with no action taken (not the statute of limitations), it has to 
do with mitigating damages. A damaged party can't sit by and knowingly 
let damages accrue and THEN decide to sue...

Of course if "I couldn't afford to pay" was an adequate defense, we'd 
all be driving Rolls Royce, Bentley and Ferrari. :-)