The Best EULA Ever...
Oct. 30th, 2008 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
le_bebna_kamniI hate proprietary EULAs with a passion. Whenever possible, I go open source, because I hate that sinking feeling when I read all the restrictions about how many computers you can install your software on, what uses you can put it to, how many children you owe the company if you fail to register, etc.
Recently I purchased some rather expensive, but somewhat necessary companion software for a sewing machine that I own. You can use the machine sans the software, of course, but the full brilliance of it can only be realized when you can sync it to your computer (yes, you *can* do that nowadays). It's a wondrous thing.
In fact, the first thing I thought when I purchased the software was: "I don't have time to do this, but it would be really nice to figure out how to write open source software that would do the same thing." But most EULAs have stipulations about reverse engineering the software, and I'm not yet sure how to write this kind of software from scratch.
So imagine my delight and surprise when I read through the entire EULA...then read through it again...then read it a third time to be sure...and found out that it has no restrictions on reverse engineering or disassembling or in any way getting into the code and tinkering with it. Yes, you can still only install it on one machine. You can't sublease, lend or redistribute it. You can't sell it unless you transfer all copies and accompanying media to the new owner. But nowhere can I find anything that would prohibit me from rewriting the already existing code to make an open source version that runs on Linux instead of Windows.
What, didn't they think that little old ladies who make embroidered tea cozies could also be hackers? I'm very amused.
I still don't have time to do it, but it's given me hope that someone might. Are there are any other sewing Linux geeks out there? *squee*
Recently I purchased some rather expensive, but somewhat necessary companion software for a sewing machine that I own. You can use the machine sans the software, of course, but the full brilliance of it can only be realized when you can sync it to your computer (yes, you *can* do that nowadays). It's a wondrous thing.
In fact, the first thing I thought when I purchased the software was: "I don't have time to do this, but it would be really nice to figure out how to write open source software that would do the same thing." But most EULAs have stipulations about reverse engineering the software, and I'm not yet sure how to write this kind of software from scratch.
So imagine my delight and surprise when I read through the entire EULA...then read through it again...then read it a third time to be sure...and found out that it has no restrictions on reverse engineering or disassembling or in any way getting into the code and tinkering with it. Yes, you can still only install it on one machine. You can't sublease, lend or redistribute it. You can't sell it unless you transfer all copies and accompanying media to the new owner. But nowhere can I find anything that would prohibit me from rewriting the already existing code to make an open source version that runs on Linux instead of Windows.
What, didn't they think that little old ladies who make embroidered tea cozies could also be hackers? I'm very amused.
I still don't have time to do it, but it's given me hope that someone might. Are there are any other sewing Linux geeks out there? *squee*
