An interesting idea; A forum script with no license agreement?

So basically, you buy the software and it's treated like a physical product; you can do whatever the hell you like with it without regards to the original author or their wishes.

Don't like the copyright or legal notices? You can remove absolutely all of them and even stick your own name in there like you can with a physical product. Want to sell/lend/give away your product? Go ahead, it's completely outside the control of the makers (although this is actually legally mandatory for licensed products under European law too). Want to use resources from the product in your own work? Go ahead, nothing in real life stops you from taking bits of machinery from different products and joining them together.

Maybe the product could even NOT have a license database or anything, since for offline products they don't particularly check or care your version is legitimate. After all, I heard from a few articles online (like http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/the-legality-of-buying-knockoffs/) that they don't charge or punish people for buying knockoff versions of products for personal use, so why not have a forum script which works the same way?

Additionally, no restrictions on how the software can be used. So as long as the forum software customer is legally allowed to buy it under the likes of US trade restrictions, they can then use it for whatever they like with no background checks or rules.

Of course, it wouldn't only be a good thing. Upgrades would probably have to follow the vBulletin 4/5 model since that's how real world purchases work; you buy something once, then when you need a new one you buy a new one with no discount. Security would be very much a 'do it yourself' thing, since most real life products don't issue fixes for things like safety or security issues.

So could this sort of model be used for some forum software in future? Would it be a good idea to see a forum script sold like a fridge or a television rather than like a contract? And would you buy a digital product which worked under the same rules as a physical one?

 

Software isn't really physical. It is just a bunch of bits and bytes, which, when broken down even further, are just a bunch of electrical charges. Even on a CD or DVD, it is the disk that is physical, not the software. So treating software like a physical product is basically impossible and why you never see it being sold that way.

Scott

 

That's true. But is there any practical reason why we need things like these licenses and terms and copyright footers rather than assuming the buyer gets all rights to do what they want with their purchase? It seems like companies hate the idea of giving normal people control over anything nowadays...

 

The user doesn't need the things you point out, but the companies who sell software do. They need them to control who has what license/ version of the software. If they didn't do this, they wouldn't know how to tell if you paid for a license or stole it.

The copyright or "powered by" in the footer is more advertisement than anything else. If you want the advertisement gone, you pay extra for a brand free version of the software. Whether or not that is necessary, could be debatable. If the brand is really cool and people love it, then most are even proud to "wear it".

Scott

 

If you buy a physical object you can't decide to all of a sudden give a copy of that physical object to all of your friends for free. You can with software. And that is the main reason licensing exists.

If you were the developer, spent hours of time and effort creating a new forum product, and then you sell it to me for $250 or so and I turn around and start handing it out for free, where does that leave you? Will anyone want to buy from you if I want to turn around and hand it out for free?

Say you come out with an updated version. It also costs $250 -- I buy the update with 10 of my friends who also want it. We split the cost so we pay $25 each. We all turn around and sell it for $30 to others. Will you now start selling yours for $30 also or will you continue to sell for $250?

 

This will create brand problems for the company that makes it. And this is what Pirates crave. A software that allows you to do whatever you want with it, and treat it as their own.

Hackers only dream of this kind of software.