[DECtalk] how to prove decTalk license status?

[Don]

On 6/19/2022 8:16 AM, joshknnd1982 at gmail.com wrote:
> Well then I guess you don't sell it, you just give it away for free. But
> really I think the copyright laws in this country are messed up and are in
> bad need of being changed.

They were changed.  Made to come into closer agreement with the rest
of the world!

> But I don't make the laws or own the stuff, I
> just like using and playing around with it. I'm not even interested in
> making money off of it. Its too bad you can't treat decTalk and other
> vintage software like you treat old classic 1950s and 1960s cars. Buy them,
> sell them, take them apart and put new engines in them etcetera. If only you
> could treat classic software like you can treat classic or vintage vehicles.
> We could do a lot more with them.

You *own* a vehicle.  You don't *own* software.  You are merely "allowed
to use it" -- and under very specific conditions.

I had an early client who made a surprisingly astute comment to me
during contract negotiations:

"We WANT you to make money!  If you don't, then you won't want to do this!
And, if you discover, later in the project, that your estimate was way
too low, then you are likely to just walk away from the project.  We
can SUE you but that will take time, we still won't have a product to
sell, and no one will be happy"

When a product designer/manufacturer doesn't get sufficient "return"
for his investment, he leaves that Market (or goes belly-up which
is the same as "leaving").

Likewise, when there isn't enough business (profit) in a Market, then
you don't see other people entering that Market -- which means those
customers have fewer choices.

The ideal is to find the sweet spot where you have enough choice
without paying too high a price.

Ever wonder why a child's "litte red wagon" is dirt cheap but a
*wheelchair* costs through the roof?