Isn't this illegal? Site is trying to SELL open office for $40

[fs5]

kubero.ntfn.org

check the screenshots here: http://kubero.ntfn.org/info.php
it's clearly open office and they even covered up the open office title with their own.

 

[Anubis]

yes its illegal and thats definitly open office

 

[trek]

Originally posted by: fivespeed5
kubero.ntfn.org

check the screenshots here: http://kubero.ntfn.org/info.php
it's clearly open office and they even covered up the open office title with their own.

They didn't even do a good job of covering the title...

 

[vi edit]

I'm not up on all the GNU laws and open source stuff....but isn't it "legal" to sell open source stuff if you make it more easily installible and then charge based on support?

Isn't that what red hat and corel do?

 

[simms]

LOL "We donate a percentage of the money we receive back to open source projects. This is a vital to our goals and to the purpose of providing high quality software solutions at a low cost. We look forward to promoting future cutting-edge solutions and ideas."

http://kubero.ntfn.org/about.php

Someone email OpenOffice about this?

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I'm not up on all the GNU laws and open source stuff....but isn't it "legal" to sell open source stuff if you make it more easily installible and then charge based on support?

Isn't that what red hat and corel do?

yes but they didnt make this in any way, its openoffice, and they are selling its as their own,

 

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I'm not up on all the GNU laws and open source stuff....but isn't it "legal" to sell open source stuff if you make it more easily installible and then charge based on support?

Isn't that what red hat and corel do?

Red hat and corel just sell support. When you buy their package, you are buying X amount of years of support. Their releases are free to download.

At least, thats how I see it...if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

 

[Beattie]

They can sell it all they want as long as they make any modifications they made to the source availible.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I'm not up on all the GNU laws and open source stuff....but isn't it "legal" to sell open source stuff if you make it more easily installible and then charge based on support?

Isn't that what red hat and corel do?

you can sell any open source software as you please, but you have to name and credit the original project. Its legal to charge 40 bucks for open office, but its not legal to sell it as a "our ms office compatible suite ".

For example you can download gentoo live-cd, burn it and sell it on ebay as gentoo live CD (theres ton of people on ebay selling linux CDRs)

 

[notfred]

They can sell it and call it whatever they want as lnog as the source code is available. None of you people (except beattie) have actually read the GPL, have you?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Beattie
They can sell it all they want as long as they make any modifications they made to the source availible.

That's what I was thinking. It seems more of a question of ethics rather than legality.

But like I said, I'm pretty out of the open source loop.

 

[dabuddha]

Response to my email asking about why they're selling openoffice

I really didn't want to respond to this email, because I feel like it's unfair. We just started this, and we're not trying to hide the fact that it's open office--we're talking to OpenOffice.org about it because we're trying to become a Community Distributor. So I'm sure that if there are any problems with the site, they will be corrected.

We're trying to get more Windows users to use the Open Office software. That's really the only way to ensure that document standards can remain open, and the only way to make compatibility between Windows and Linux more of a reality (in the workplace). But we believe you do this not by advertising the product on the level that people are used to seeing things advertised. We sort of knew it would sound bad to the people who already know about OpenOffice.org, but... it isn't for you. You already know how to
install and download the software.

By the way, OpenOffice.org is on every CD. Also, we will be adding OpenOffice.org to our website.

Anyway, thanks for the email, maybe this will help for me to convince my partner that we need
to talk more about OpenOffice.org on the website. (I was pushing for that.)

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
Response to my email asking about why they're selling openoffice

I really didn't want to respond to this email, because I feel like it's unfair. We just started this, and we're not trying to hide the fact that it's open office--we're talking to OpenOffice.org about it because we're trying to become a Community Distributor. So I'm sure that if there are any problems with the site, they will be corrected.

We're trying to get more Windows users to use the Open Office software. That's really the only way to ensure that document standards can remain open, and the only way to make compatibility between Windows and Linux more of a reality (in the workplace). But we believe you do this not by advertising the product on the level that people are used to seeing things advertised. We sort of knew it would sound bad to the people who already know about OpenOffice.org, but... it isn't for you. You already know how to
install and download the software.

By the way, OpenOffice.org is on every CD. Also, we will be adding OpenOffice.org to our website.

Anyway, thanks for the email, maybe this will help for me to convince my partner that we need
to talk more about OpenOffice.org on the website. (I was pushing for that.)

perhaps you should question why they're blocking open office from the screenshots?

 

[civad]

A company called SOT (they have a distribution called SOT linux aslo?) sold SOT Office (aka Openoffice.org) for $$ and cahrged more for source code, IIRC. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[TerryMathews]

Also worth noting that the source only has to be distributed along with the binary; IE if I sell a compiled application, I must make the source available to you. I do not have to make the source available to everyone. Of course, nothing legally prevents you from sharing the soruce with anyone you choose. The binary, OTOH, would be infringement just like sharing Windows is.

This site is walking a fine line, but nothing I've seen so far is a blatant infraction. Just like the router firmware that made Slashdot news last night.

 

[dabuddha]

Their response to my question about whether they are providing support at least for the software:

We plan on providing some kind of support in the form of how-to documents (for very inexperienced users), and also better looking templates. Maybe if we make enough money to quit our day jobs we could actually do some development on it or other open source projects, but with bills to pay we really don't have much time to have that luxury.

My response to that email:

So how can you guys justify charging so much money for a product which is available? Also why are you
modifying the screenshots by removing any references to open office? That is just taking advantage of people and goes against everything the open-source community stands for.

 

[dabuddha]

His reply

I honestly don't see what your point is. If our price is too high,
then people won't buy it
or will buy from other distributors. We don't need "justification" for
"charging so much
money." I'm personally not going to argue with you about the LGPL
which specifically
stipulates that you are allowed to charge whatever you wish.

As for needing your approval to make this ok... it seems OpenOffice.org
has welcomed us with
our site "as-is" (I just received an email from them). They're the
only ones we have to
answer to for our website (unless Microsoft gets upset maybe).

If you're saying our page is deceptive, I'll say it isn't. Although I
am definitely
(despite being approved by OpenOffice.org) going to put up more about
the OpenOffice.org
project on the website, I don't think we are deceiving buyers.
OpenOffice.org is quite a
professional grade product, in my opinion, and I do not think the price
is excessive for
what they get. Nor do I think we have mislead anyone about the
abilities of OpenOffice.org.
I have tried very hard not to say things that aren't true, but if you
find any you are
welcome to point them out. For example, I have seen people on eBay
selling OpenOffice.org
say "100% compatible with Microsoft Word and Excel" but to me that's
not true. I use
OpenOffice.org exclusively and it doesn't always have the same
formatting in documents.

By the way, the open source community doesn't necessarily stand for
what you want it to
stand for. It stands for allowing people to have full control over a
copy of software that
they purchase. Unlike the official OpenOffice.org ISO, we include the
source code for
both OpenOffice and DictInstall on the CD. You can't say we don't care
about open source.

I'm probably not going to entertain another email like this one,
however if you have some
suggestions of what you think we should do better, I'll at least
promise you I'll take
it into consideration.

 

[Beattie]

Originally posted by: dabuddha

My response to that email:

So how can you guys justify charging so much money for a product which is available? Also why are you
modifying the screenshots by removing any references to open office? That is just taking advantage of people and goes against everything the open-source community stands for.

Wow, you're dumb.

Read my previous post. They can charge whatever they want to. They can take whatever screenshots they want to. Stop harassing that guy.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

There is a link to openoffice.org with an openoffice.org logo on the left hand side. I'd hardly say they are "removing references to open office".

PICS!

 

[thirtythree]

nm

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Beattie

Originally posted by: dabuddha

My response to that email:

So how can you guys justify charging so much money for a product which is available? Also why are you
modifying the screenshots by removing any references to open office? That is just taking advantage of people and goes against everything the open-source community stands for.

Wow, you're dumb.

Read my previous post. They can charge whatever they want to. They can take whatever screenshots they want to. Stop harassing that guy.

Wow, you're a moron. If you actually learned how to read you'd see I'm questioning him about the morality of this.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: dabuddha

Originally posted by: Beattie

Originally posted by: dabuddha

My response to that email:

So how can you guys justify charging so much money for a product which is available? Also why are you
modifying the screenshots by removing any references to open office? That is just taking advantage of people and goes against everything the open-source community stands for.

Wow, you're dumb.

Read my previous post. They can charge whatever they want to. They can take whatever screenshots they want to. Stop harassing that guy.

Wow, you're a moron. If you actually learned how to read you'd see I'm questioning him about the morality of this.

Why?

 

[manly]

Too lazy to read the entire thread, but chances are they *can* resell free software, but they have to release source, they cannot prohibit re-distribution (amongst any other license provisions) and most likely they cannot use the O brand without written consent from copyright holders (Sun being prominant among them?).

 

[civad]

OP's got his priorities mixed up. If I were you, I would thank the CSR (or whoever wrote to you about their product) for a frank reply. It seems that they aren't doing anything wrong.

 

[crazycarl]

yea really, they're just trying to make a buck, they are only hurting people who are too stupid to figure out what file to download, 'a fool and his money are soon parted'