[Wolves] BBC Technology poll - vote now :-)

[Richard Smedley]

On Mon, 2007-10-29 at 09:00 +0000, Mark Harrison wrote:  
> >> The point about £500 pa was a comment on the "just pay a fixed fee per 
> >> PC, irrespective of which MS software you load on it" licencing model. 
> >> I'm not saying that this model is best, only that I _don't_ find it 
> >> particularly morally reprehensible as an option.

Good morning Mark,

> > Hmm, I think in most walks of life this would be known
> > as a protection racket :-/
> >
> >   
> Really... Just trying to find examples:
> 
> - A video rental library that charges a flat monthly fee irrespective of 
> how many videos/DVDs you borrow.

This is a _membership_ club. How does it compare to a situation
where every school in an LEA must may MS licences, even if it
wants to install GNU?

> - Company van insurance. Pay one (higher premium) and be insured for any 
> member of staff to drive the van, irrespective of whether all of them 
> actually do.

Not even close.

> - A health club that charges a monthly fee irrespective of whether you 
> go or not in any given month.

cf video club.

> - A broadband connection that charges a monthly fee, whether you use the 
> service or not (or whether you use the service for an hour each evening 
> to check email, or are a teleworker.) [ditto gas, electricity, phone, 
> mobile phone, water, sewage contracts, many of which have "fixed monthly 
> fee" plans.]

This is a service charge. Are you suggesting that software
is comparable to utilities that must be piped in at great
expense (in terms of infrastructure)? If so, where do you
see Free Software fitting in with this model?

> - Hell, if you want to go down that route, a bookshop that charges the 
> same price per book, whether it is read by every member of your family, 
> and loaned to your friends... or whether it is given as an unsuitable 
> Christmas present, and never read.

Now you are joking. Books are sold as physical property
- irrespective of the copyright on the contents. Software
is licensed for a digital copy, not a physical medium.

> In most walks of life, offering pricing plans that are "decoupled" from 
> actual usage is the norm, surely? Or at least, an option that no-one 
> blinks about.

This is not about _usage_ - it is about reinforcing a
*monopoly*

While I find knee-jerk MS-bashing rather tedious, here
we are talking about a convicted monopolist (convicted
in both EU and US courts), using their monopoly
position to maintain that market share. This is illegal
under competition law in most countries, including the
UK. If you have Legal Advice that suggests otherwise, 
rather than membership of a video club, please present
it here: as a supplier into this market I'm very 
interested :-/

> I can't comment on a court case that the legal system dropped. My 
> experience of court cases is that EVERYONE goes in thinking they have an 
> excellent case, and 50% of people discover that they didn't. (I've been 
> involved in exactly one court case, where my insurer and I believed the 
> other driver was at fault, and the judge disagreed :-) )

Just after I mentioned the court case, I noticed that BECTA themselves
are now protesting about the Schools Agreement:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7063716.stm

 - Richard

-- 
Richard Smedley,                                         rs at m6-it.org
Technical Director,                                     www.M6-IT.org
M6-IT CIC                                        +44 (0)779 456 07 14

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