Randy C
June 9th, 1999, 04:55 PM
In the last Code Guru newsletter, an excellent review appeared for the book : "PROGRAMMING WINDOWS 95 WITH MFC" by Jeff Prosise. The book is indeed excellent, but as the reviewer points out, it is out of print. I have an additional comment. Not only is the book out of print, but if you find one and the included CD is damaged, you will not be able to get one from Microsoft. They will offer to put it on back order for you, but the fact is, it will never happen.
Why do I mention this? First to raise the issue so that anyone who does have a copy of that CD might respond, and maybe be willing to share it by some agreement. But that raises another issue. I don't want to start a MicroSoft bashing discussion here, but it is plainly obvious that the company has no problem halting the supply of a book, CD, or resource, long before the demand for it has stopped. And since they are certainly not in danger of failing to make a profit because of overstock, I must conclude that this is intentional, for whatever reason.
So: Can we developers legally share resources that are obviously copyrighted, when the manufacturer can no longer claim it denys them revenue? Despite the fact that we are all most assuredly law abiding folks that would never normally pirate any copyrighted material, it seems to me that when a company no longer sells a product, there should be some mechanism in place for getting around obviouly misplaced legalities. So here is a good example. An excellent book from the Microsoft press. Text and CD no longer available. Someone seeing this post needs the files on that CD, someone else has them. When the manufacturer no longer supports the product, how can it be shared without risking being arrested by the Microsoft police.
--Randy C
* * * Second star to the Right!
Why do I mention this? First to raise the issue so that anyone who does have a copy of that CD might respond, and maybe be willing to share it by some agreement. But that raises another issue. I don't want to start a MicroSoft bashing discussion here, but it is plainly obvious that the company has no problem halting the supply of a book, CD, or resource, long before the demand for it has stopped. And since they are certainly not in danger of failing to make a profit because of overstock, I must conclude that this is intentional, for whatever reason.
So: Can we developers legally share resources that are obviously copyrighted, when the manufacturer can no longer claim it denys them revenue? Despite the fact that we are all most assuredly law abiding folks that would never normally pirate any copyrighted material, it seems to me that when a company no longer sells a product, there should be some mechanism in place for getting around obviouly misplaced legalities. So here is a good example. An excellent book from the Microsoft press. Text and CD no longer available. Someone seeing this post needs the files on that CD, someone else has them. When the manufacturer no longer supports the product, how can it be shared without risking being arrested by the Microsoft police.
--Randy C
* * * Second star to the Right!