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Hardware Manufacturers Gouging Customers
rahlquist writes "An article over at infoworld discusses that buying that used router on ebay may not be a good deal if Cisco can find its way to screwing you. What's next, buy a used Ford and pay Ford to transfer the license for the onboard computer's OS or face piracy charges if you continue to drive?"
does this mean I can sell the hardware to someone, and the software to someone else?
It means you can't sell the software at all. You don't own it, and the license is not transferable.
I bought an 831 new (so I have the license for it) back in June. After reading about the recent vulnerablility I contacted Cisco to get an updated IOS version. I thought it would be a simple process, considering some of the comments I read here. I recieved an email back from them telling me if I wanted it fixed, I would have to purchase a SmartNet contract. That was July 18, and I am still running a vulnerable version using the ACL workaround.
I was looking for a used SOHO series router on eBay, but I think I'm better off building a small Linux router and using something like Freesco instead.
I know I'm small potatoes in context to the article, but I wonder how many other large organizations, after having a experience simimlar to Mr. Tague's, will take a long hard look at a Linux based solution?
Read. The official way on how to respond to a (possible) GPL violation.
Hate me!
They have to play by US law. Now they could, of course, just stop selling stuff here and there'd be little anyone could do about it. However a US court can exert control over them so long as they have a US arm of operations. This is how the EU can exert control over Microsoft, despite it being a US company. They do bussiness in the EU and hence are subject to the laws of member nations if the wish to continue to to bussiness there.
Did you read the article? This isn't a router from Best Buy we're talking about here. It's resales (most likely from bankruptcy settlements) of high end networking equipment - the list price of one of the items is 60 grand. The guy got it for 4.