Ross,
I agree that "authors, artists, musicians, etc." have a right to collect
fees for selling and transferring their work. However, In this case the
original poster states that they purchased the SLA and software (yes we all
know you never legally own the software) and now 3D wants to charge full
purchase price to transfer the license. I firmly believe that this is
out-of-line on 3D's part. They have already sold the seat and used that
money. As long as the original owner is no longer using the seat why
should 3D expect more than the standard yearly software maintenance fee to
transfer the license? Why even that? 3D is in the market to sell RP
equipment. As a stock holder I would much rather them transfer the license
and collect the software (and hopefully hardware) maintenance fees.
Looking at the 3D's yearly financial reports you can see that this area
accounts for a major portion of their income.
By trying to collect the original purchase price again, 3D is inviting the
user to seek other alternatives to Maestro which would then generate NO
residual income to the company. That does not make this share holder
happy! In my opinion 3D has been very short sighted in this area as of
late. I recently had a situation dealing with lasers where 3D was so
inflexible that I had no other choice but to seek an alternative source.
In the end, 3D lost the laser sale and all future retubing income. Again,
not something that I like to see as a shareholder.
It's my belief that 3D should transfer the license at no cost and work
closely with the new user to develop a long term relationship that will
result in more sells and more maintenance income. Just my opinion.
Bruce E. LeMaster
Ross Gates wrote:
> This is a mistake that many people take when purchasing used equipment
> that comes with any software. Software cannot be purchased. As far as I
> know, there is no software that is purchased, not even from Microsoft.
> All software is licensed by the author and is usually non-transferable.
> No one seems to read the licensing agreements that come with all
> software, but it ususally states that the license is good only to the
> person that purchased it. You cannot legally sell or give software to
> anyone or use it on multiple computers, without buying another license.
>
> All software authors, authors, artists, musicians, etc., have a right
> to fees for the selling or transfering of their work. It is a basic
> copyright law that has been around for a long time.
>
> In the case of 3D Systems, they are very much in their right to these
> fees. These should have been found out and taken into consideration
> during the purchase of the machine. At least you didn't purchase a DTM,
> because they have licensing fees on their material, along with the
> software. By the way, there are licensing fees for the software on the
> machine, also.
>
> Ross Gates
> Select Mfg. Services Inc.
>
> IJ George wrote:
>
> > RE: SCat3D@aol.com on $20K charges for Maestro.
> >
> > While I'm sure the Maestro is not transferable, was the system
> > you bought the Hughes machine? It was advertised with Maestro -
> > maybe grounds for compliant and refund?
> >
> > ______________________________________________________
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> >
> > For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
-- Applied Rapid Technologies Corporation 265 Cambridge Street, Suite 100 Fredericksburg, Virginia 22405 (540) 371-1100 / (540) 371-4100 fax Web Page URL: http://www.artcorp.comFor more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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