Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 21:41:55 09/08/03
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On September 09, 2003 at 00:01:11, Robin Smith wrote: >I used to work for Hewlett Packard, and had many connections to the ink jet >business unit. Believe me, it won't. Neither will cases against ink cartridge >refilling kit companies. All ink jet printers are sold at near cost, often even >below cost, to capture the lucrative ink cartridge business. There are huge >financial incentives. If printer manufacturers could force customers to only buy >new cartridges from them, they would do so. But if you buy a printer, or an ink >jet cartridge, it BELONGS to you! The *owner* gets to decide how they use the >product, once it belongs to them. Just because someone puts something in a box >that says if you buy it from them, you can't do such and so with it, doesn't >make it true. There is a bunch of case law on this topic, going back at least to >Xerox. Manufacturers have even tried to make warranties void if you use after >market parts, and that has not stood up in court either, as long as the >aftermarket part is functionally equivalent. That sounds reasonable for something like a printer, which you could realistically use without ever reading the terms of service. With software, however, it seems somewhat more likely to stand up in a court, because on almost any commercial software you have to click "I agree" before you can even install the software. That is still not anywhere close to a contract though, since I could install a piece of software and my brother, who didn't agree to anything, could hack up the software all he wanted and rightly claim that he never agreed not to. No one would ever be able to prove who clicked "I agree", and so I guess you're right, it would not stand up in a court of law. I guess unless they have a document with your signature stating that you will or won't do something, it won't hold up in a court. Fortunately, this isn't a court :)
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