Well, apparently I should have seen this obscure news letter on the GS UK website (to which I am not subscribed or even notified about!). I won't post the direct link for the moment, as I don't know if it is for UK users only.
This was in BIMnews February 09.
I get all the waffle about intellectual know-how and how us not owning it means we can't sell it on, I still don't understand why we can't
Disgusted of Wiltshire signing off.
This was in BIMnews February 09.
WelcomeSo to sum it up - Tough titty - you can't sell it.
Hello and welcome to the second edition of BIMnews.
As staff numbers fluctuate in these difficult times I’ve been asked by several people about what they can do with their spare copies of ArchiCAD. The short answer is: keep them because you can’t sell them to someone else. I’m sure many people will find this difficult to understand in the context of being able to resell other items, (e.g., car, computer, unwanted gifts, etc.) so let me explain why this is the only (legal) course of action… but first let me introduce the other content of this issue.
When you buy ArchiCAD you don’t actually buy the software – you buy a personal (individual or firm) license to use the software. This means you can use the software for as long as you like but you are not able to transfer it to someone else. This right of use, and the associated limitations, are described in the End User License Agreement which pops up when you first use the software. Perhaps an analogy might explain this more clearly. Think of a hire car. Imagine that you make one payment and enter into a contract that enables you to use the car for as long as you like. The car remains the property of the hire company and you have every right to use it whenever and wherever you want but because the hire contract is with you it is not transferable to someone else. This simple analogy isn’t perfect but I hope it illustrates how software licensing works – it is a very complicated subject. Virtually all software is sold as a “license to use” so why is this?
The answer lies in intellectual know-how. When you buy a car you receive a product and the intellectual know-how remains with the manufacturer (which it protects with patents, etc). When you buy software you’re not buying a product in the traditional sense – it has more in common with, say, music where you have a right to listen but not to copy. For software to work it has to include and reveal all the intellectual know-how of the author, so there’s no separation between the “product” and the intellectual know-how. For software authors to be able to protect their intellectual property rights they have to sell a license to use, and not the actual software. Again this is a very simple description of an immensely complex topic.
So in addition to remaining on the right side of the law a further good reason for retaining your spare licenses is that projects will start/restart once the recession begins to ease and staff numbers will have to grow again.
If you have any questions or comments on BIMnews, or other subjects, please contact me at abaikie@graphisoft.co.uk
Best regards
Alan Baikie
Managing Director, Graphisoft UK Ltd
I get all the waffle about intellectual know-how and how us not owning it means we can't sell it on, I still don't understand why we can't
Disgusted of Wiltshire signing off.
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