Re: [cobalt-users] OSRCD (slightly off topic?)

[Greg Hewitt-Long <cobaltusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Hi,
>
>Sun has sent us (frontstreetnetworks.com / raqware.com) notice
>requesting that we can no longer provide our OSRCD service.
>
>They claim we are selling their software at a profit!
>
>I maintain (and my lawyer concurs) that the software we put on an OSRCD is
>freely available on the Internet. Anyone can download the software and build
>his/her OSRCD.
>
>We are not selling the software we are selling a service!
>
>The service we provide is;
>1) We download latest Sun/Cobalt iso for a product.
>2) We download all the latest patches.
>3) We modify the partition table on, Qube1/2, RaQ1/2/3/4 to make larger
>    '/' and '/var' partitions. (later systems have larger partitions)
>4) We download the third party patches that a client request.
>5) We build an OSRCD iso that includes all the current sun/cobalt patches,
>    and the third party pkgs the client requested!
>6) We test the OSRCD on an actual server to insure that it works properly!
>    (I might add, we have never had an issue with the CD's)
>7) We send the OSRCD to the client.
>
>And we do NOT sell them on ebay!
>
>We do all this for $50.00 + shipping, we might be breaking even on the
>service!
>
>What do you think?
>Does Sun/cobalt have a complaint?


To me - this sounds like an exercise in losing money - but everyone values their time differently.  I'd personally consider it a bargain at that price - an ABSOLUTE BARGAIN.

My take on it would be to try and reword your fee structure such that you are charging for your time and effort in loading/testing software (both Copyright and free/open source) and the charge ONLY relates to the testing and loading - the delivery of the "proof" of your work involves burning the CD with a mixture of Copyright and open sourced materials, and that the copyright issues or breach of them is the problem of the person USING the CD.  It's probably vague enough to pass - but who knows when the attorneys start flying!! ;{)

I'd be interested in learning how sun might view the issue if you burnt a CD with say, FreeBSD on it to autoload onto their hardware - that would kind of stump them right?

But - as always - I am not an attorney!!

regards

Greg Hewitt-Long

ps - can I get a build with a RAQ4i with:

Bassi's Mailscanner
Vipul's Razor
PHP
PHPMyAdmin
MySQL
Latest webalizer
OpenWebMail
Security and SSH/Kernel and other patches up to date etc.

Can you test it on a RAQ4 and also a Qube 3 for us?  All for $50?




>--
>Gerald Waugh
>http://frontstreetnetworks.com         http://raqware.com
>Front Street Networks LLC   Phone: +1 203 785 0699
>229 Front Street, Ste. C, New Haven CT 06513-3203
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