Re: The problem with not owning the software

On 2024-12-30 16:08, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

On 2024-12-30 03:24, Chris wrote:

CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:

Le 2024-12-21 à 03:52, Mr. Man-wai Chang a écrit :

On 20/12/2024 9:03 am, CrudeSausage wrote:

<https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-365-users-
hit-by-random-product-deactivation-errors/>
>
​Microsoft is investigating a known issue triggering "Product
Deactivated" errors for customers using Microsoft 365 Office apps.
>

>
It's not about "owning the software", but whether it requires a real-
time online account to work. The usual words are "standalone" and
"offline". :)

>
The moment you require an online account to verify if you are the person
who bought the software, you don't own it.

>
You've never "owned" software, afaia. At best, you own a licence which
allows you to use the software within the terms of the licence. If you
break the terms then you can lose the right to use the software.

 It's pretty easy to own the software if you use open-source, to be honest. You have access to the code and can do as you wish with it as long as you agree to share your modifications with the people who offered it to you. That's as good as it gets outside of producing your own program.

I think you can keep your modifications to yourself, as long as you don't share or publish or sell the binary. Just your own internal usage.
--
Cheers, Carlos.