>>>>Totally off topic, but two weeks ago I got a call from someone at M$ making a courtsy call to check my name and company at my office. ... just keeping their database up to date as it were,
>>>>
>>>>Friday I got one of those well done photo announcemnts warning us to keep track of all our ms product licenes as the fines can be up to 150,000 or more.
>>>>
>>>>I am sure that the nice woman on the phone was collecting my name to enable this response - scare tactic
>>>>
>>>>Not that every copy of MS office etc is fully licenced (which it is) but these bullying arround operations, are really a bit much..
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Bob Lee
>>>>
>>>
>>>After the 'announcement' comes "Louie the leg breaker", aka the BSA, to audit for license violations. If they find any, then comes the big fine, with the option to take the "less expensive" 5 year bulk licensing agreement. We have one person devoted to keeping track of that stuff. Think their salary is figured into the cost of ownership?
>>
>>Jerry,
>>
>>The real "bad guys" here are not MS, BSA, or Borland. It is the pirates. MS and Borland have a right to protect there interests. They only want to prevent theft and increase equity for the owners. We should focus on eliminating the "disease". The crazy license agreements are only a symptom. By boycotting Borland you only hurt them. They develop great products. They provide a great alternative for developers.
>>
>>What if Blockbuster bought one copy of 'Planet of the Apes' and duped it in house and made 250,000 copies for all the stores? Not fair. Nobody would have issues with the Police breaking into BB's headquarters and shutting them down. It's the same deal with here.
>
>THe definition of 'pirate' has been expanded by Gates in a self-serving way. Needless to say, I am not Blockbuster, nor am I a pirate. The analogy doesn't hold. But, this has been beaten to death.

It holds. It's a violation of the agreement.

>
>>
>>My suggestion would be to keep buying Borland and live with the agreement. Keep good records and you should not have issues. Don't penalize Borland for protecting their products from pirates. They are the victims.
>>
>>BTW, You can't pawn your copy of Kylix. Read the EULA ;)
>
>So you noticed! My point EXACTLY!
>
>But, I will "penalize" Borland by choosing competitive sources for dev tools because they deemed it necessary to 'penalize' me when I purchased their software.

I don't see the new license agreement as being a penalty. They have to act upon it first. Plus I don't think they are going to randomly go into places and audit. I think they would want a cause first. After all, they still have to pay for it. Unless you're guilty. :-)

>In the six months I've used Kylix I've noticed another distrubing habit that Borland has adopted. Denail of existing bugs and refusal to fix them in a timely manner, saving such fixes for the next 'upgrade'. I'm getting off that merry go round now. I'm old enough to remember when this current nonsense wasn't around. Philip Kann wasn't so greedy, and I cheerfully paid for his software.
>

Sounds like everything is going to a subscription. You no longer "buy" a version. But you are right. If they are making it a subscription then they should make it official. I too expect fixes, unless told otherwise.

>It used to be that the license was for using software like a 'like a book.' I could have it on two PCs if I couldn't/didn't use them at the same time. I could give-sell it to another if I didn't retain any copies (which would be pirating). When this unethical and immoral form of licensing spreads to other forms of products perhaps, maybe, people will wake up stop acting like sheeple.

I don't know if its unethical and immoral. It's a company doing what it feels neccessary to protect it's stockholders. You made your choice not to buy. That's fine. I just hope you made your choice because of product quality, service, features, etc., and not because Borland has taken steps to protect itself from pirates and the like. Imagine being the CEO at Borland: Gotta take care of the stockholders and at the same time you don't want to disenfranchise the law biding customers. What a deal.

Dan