[xQuEeNzNaZcHox]

Originally Posted by Logician

They coded a program and they want their program be used in the way they like it.Their program is not hold a monopoly in the market so if they don't like their license agreement, you are free to use a rival program whose license agreement fits better to your demands.

They are not alone in their policy either. Many software vendors put everything they can hold against customers in their license agreements. Many companies are even using these agreements as "weapons". For instance say you purchase 1000 Windows license from Microsoft and spend a lot of money to design all your company's system based on Windows. Then you decide to host your internet site on linux which then angers Microsoft. They pay your 1000 Windows license fee back and ask you to stop using Windows anymore. Since you can't do it, you agree to host your server in a Windows NT enviroment instead of linux or your whole company network will go in jeopardy.

The legal validity of such license agreement items (mostly with respect to consumer laws) is another hot discussion. This discussion is blur either because comments would change according to the law system you are discussing as every country can have a different attitude on this legal issue. The truth is such things are going on everyday in the software market.

Hence all of what you posted, do you still think it is right that because one of your servers runs the Linux operating system, it is quite alright for them to not allow you to run Windows on another one of your servers, after you spent good money on the program and the multiple licensing (for use with more than 1 server)? What you are doing there is not even illegal, let alone voiding any legal agreement.

I can see why Jelsoft does not want their flagship (and probably only) product being used in a way that could contredict the way people look at their company. However, the policy is still wrong. They are not cyber police. We are using their software because we bought it, and other than that, if people are posting warez or child pornography, that agreement is all that they are voiding. Should Jelsoft be responsible? No. Should Jelsoft stop people from doing it? No. Jelsoft can put it somewhere on something that they are not responsible for the sites run by their application.

What happens if you have a board with 200,000 posts a day? It is a computer forum. Unless you have 100 dedicated mods to every forum and a few good super mods, it would be hard to monitor whether some measly guy posted a link that would let them download Photoshop 6 for free, or download some child pornography picture. Is the license agreement voided then?

Sad thing is, I know a few boards who illegally distribute copywritten material and other things, such as child pornography. I would give you a few examples if you want. Why hasn't Jelsoft stopped them from using their product yet? Someone tell me if you want examples of some sites.

Jelsoft should not have the right to stop a site that uses vBulletin (that they legally paid the money for) just because it has discrimative material. Enough said.