People stealing Open Office and making $ with it

[moriokfutai]

Hi guys,

This guy is selling your free product on ebay.

please check the below link:

Open Office:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Open-Office-Pro-200 ... dZViewItem

Seller ID:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... powerpoint

Also if you do a query Powerpoint on ebay, you'll find hundreds of people selling your product.

You should take action on these thieves I use you product since the last year and I am very happy with it. It make me sick seeing people stealing others work and making money on open source soft.

I hope it helps.

What do you think about it?

[ccornell]

This topic comes up all the time on the OOo mailing list too. OpenOffice.org is open source. People selling OpenOffice.org are not stealing it. It is legal to sell OpenOffice.org - check the license that OpenOffice.org is released under.

Many vendors repackage and sell OpenOffice.org on CD or DVD as a convenience service for people who cannot download the binaries (for example because of a slow connection). If you look here http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/ you will see that there are loads of vendors selling OpenOffice.org on CD and/or DVD.

Sun for example repackages OpenOffice.org and sells it as StarOffice. There are several other companies that repackage OpenOffice.org and even include extras like templates, clipart etc plus commercial support for the price they charge end users.

[DrewJensen]

Yes this topic does come up all the time - in different contexts.

The particular context here are people that are selling links to download the distribution files nothing more. This is not ordering a CD, for which one can reasonably argue a benefit.

These are at times people that make bold faced lies about the package. I quote from the link above:

Don't be fooled. Open Office is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. -You can copy, edit, cut, paste, and save or open any format that you could with Microsoft Office.

The only difference between these two programs is about 300$.

Office Calc - Excel Clone
Office Base - Access Clone

Can the fact that they name their business "ACHILD PRODUCTIONS" be a personal joke, that this is like taking candy from a child?

Along with the numerous emails complaining about this type of practice on the OpenOffice.org mailing lists are a near equal number of emails from individuals looking for refunds, by the way.

If the current circumstances, or legal status, of the organization make it impossible to go after individuals so openly using the product of the community's work to perpetrate what I can only refer to as consumer fraud impossible, then perhaps it is time to re-evaluate. Can their be any wonder then why the first meeting of the new Advisory Board had as one of it's major points 'Defending the brand'?

[ccornell]

I wanted to make clear that it is not technically illegal to resell OpenOffice.org in whatever format as long as the terms of the license are being met. Those license terms do not say that people cannot sell a download link.

There are a multitude of people providing a fair service of mailing out OOo CDs and DVDs on request for a small fee to cover time, and materials. It should be clear that reselling OOo is not an issue in itself.

This ethical and false claims issue should/can be handled by the Advisory board and people like Louis Suaraez-Potts (the OOo Community Manager).

[DrewJensen]

I agree with all you said - less the last line.

The Advisory Board will play a role I would guess and certainly Louis has a role and i do not mean to diminish those roles, but that does not equate to no role for the community at large.

There are many things in life that are legal but one would not do without expecting some resistance from the neighbors - well, we are the neighbors here.

Edit: I should clarify also - I am not talking at all about the CD distributors. They do fill a needed niche. I am referring specifically and only to those the sell these download links.

[ccornell]

We are neighbors, but those selling links and making wild claims to sucker in the uninformed are not neighbors. When it comes to the legal aspects, it is really hard for the community in general to enforce any kind of behavior. It becomes like the endless top vs bottom posting arguments.

[DrewJensen]

ROFLMAO - OK, well trust me I do not want to foster those types of discussions...the last round of this on users mailing list is becoming absolutely ridiculous - and the said part is that there was actually a valid point to the beginning of that thread about "Subject Less Emails".

However that said - I do not believe it is the same thing at all - unless people talk and do nothing. I have done what I could, which was to send an email to eBay, explaining why I believe his description is fraudulent - I know he has the right to post that auction, but I'll be damned if I will stand by and let him do so without him at least getting a little flack over it - Yes I sent email directly to the individual running the auction also.

Anyway - to the spirit of your last comment - I'm done.... *smile*

Edit: A final follow up here - this email just arrived from the person running the auction at ebay I had no idea this was a free program to be honest. I bought it off an individual who said they were selling me resell rights also. You are the first person who has brought this to my attention. I will look into this. If there is any other information that you can send me I would appreciate it.

[DeShock]

Well, the one is selling for $2.29. Most of the "digital only" sellers were less than $5. Consider it the price of information. Apparently, anybody buying it is not aware of Open Office and the fact that it is free. The purchaser is in essence paying to be informed of the availability of the software. These sellers are getting the product out there and the buyers are getting it a lot cheaper than MS Office.

[ccornell]

I don't think the issue is really the fact that people are selling links. That in itself is not a problem - as was pointed out, it could be thought of as a way to raise awareness for the uninformed. Where the problems arise is with false and misleading claims by those re-selling OOo.