FlishFun.com

Well, I gots me some more free junk today! Both my boss and I got the idea to clean out our offices and I got a bunch of stuff to take home. Let’s see, I got…

1 HP LaserJet 5L Printer
1 Domino Designer Book
1 DVI-VGA Adapter
1 Phone cord
1 VGA cable
1 Broadcom MS-6946 PCI Modem
2 ATA Cables
1 USB Male/Male Cable
1 Pentium III (800MHz) CPU
1 Heatsink for a P3 CPU
1 IBM Netfinity VRM
1 40x CDROM (Beige-BCD 40XH)
2 sticks of 256MB PC2100 RAM
4 sticks of 64MB PC100 RAM
1 stick of 32MB PC100 RAM
1 stick of 128MB PC100 RAM
1 stick of 256 PC133 RAM

Not bad, huh? I don’t really know what I’m gonna do with it all… but free is free, and you never know when you might need some of this stuff! Then again, there’s always eBay, maybe the CDRom has a ghost living in it…

Well, I woke up to find I had an e-mail this morning, telling me to go check out an eBay entry. You can see it here (if it’s still up): eBay item 3679057994 When I looked, I noticed that it looked very familiar… very familiar like something *I* had written!! This guy burnt the AutoPatcher and was trying to sell it over eBay, and not once mentions me, the website, anything. If I remember, since I wrote it, the AutoPatcher EULA states:

RESTRICTIONS
You MAY NOT: (a) repackage this program and give it out as your own; (b) distribute this package without giving links to the AutoPatcher Homepage (http://www.autopatcher.com); (c) sell or charge any amount of money for the program.

Hmmm… it seems he’s breaking EULA! Now, I normally don’t mind people giving the AP out, or even selling the CD in their own store for just enough to cover costs, but this… this is not right. I’ve contacted eBay and the seller to remove the auction. No word from eBay yet, but the seller did contact me… here’s what he had to say:

Dear Jason;

I have already conferred with legal advice about this issue. As I am a Microsoft Support Partner (as approx 80% of the updates are within autopatcher) you are in breach of Microsoft’s EULA, Section 2, subsection 2 (a), which I will quote;

Support Services. Microsoft may provide you with support services related to the SOFTWARE (”Support Services”), in its discretion. Use of Support Services, if any, is governed by the Microsoft policies and programs described in the user manual, in “online” documentation, and/or other Microsoft-provided materials. Any supplemental software code provided to you as a part of Support Services shall be considered part of the SOFTWARE and subject to the terms of this EULA. With respect to technical information you provide to Microsoft as part of the Support Services, Microsoft may use such information for its business purposes, including for product support and development. Microsoft will not utilize such technical information in a form that personally identifies you except to the extent necessary to provide you with support.

I have already informed my Microsoft client Manager about this issue and
he will be looking further into it.

Regards:

David Roussel
Manager
Spiral Communications
http://web.archive.org/web/20040611231107/http://spiral-communications.net/

Very interesting! It should also be noted that Neowin.net is also a Microsoft Partner, and before putting their name on the program with me, they verified with Microsoft it was okay to do. Also, I don’t see anything in that paragraph that has ANYTHING to say about this not being okay. Anywho, that aside, this guy e-mails me to tell me he’s reporting ME for the AutoPatcher, when HE is trying to sell it on eBay!!! I’m sorry, but someone needs to explain to him that if *I* was breaking EULA by giving the AP away for free, he’s REALLY breaking the EULA by charging for it.

You see, I have no problem with the guy giving out all the patches, they are 100% free, but using my program to distribute them… THAT is what is the big deal here. I’m not sure if he quite understands that yet.

Anyways, it just bugged me that someone would do something like that, and then try to tell me I was the one doing something wrong.

Well, thanks for reading though my rant! No other real news today, most download links are still up and running so get it while ya can!

(Ed. Note - This is from my old AutoPatcher news blog)