Michael, (#8296) your strategy of storing data at home and working on a program stored on a server sounds good immediately, but is impractical (IMHO) due to the slowness of the data transfer between the server and the local. The network folks here have put most of the common software on the server (site licenses for MS Office, WP, Quattro Pro, a bunch of other stuff) for faculty and students to use. The students use them on the machines in computer labs hooked to the networks, but almost none of the faculty (as far as I am aware) use the networked software. Those in our department that have used it get their own copy ASAP. (Also IMHO,) this setup is good for trying out a program, to see if it does what you want, how you want, etc., but is untenable as a long-term solution.
Now, if you had the program on a removable disk (any nominations from the floor), and could move that disk from machine to machine as individuals had need for it, and would make the program itself non-copyable, that should eliminate copyright problems. If there were significant non-protected space left over on the disk for storing user-preferences (for example, toolbars for wp programs, common spreadsheet templates, or small add-in programs), then it would make the software a lot more user-friendly.
Actually, when I see this in print, it looks like the old copyright protection schemes grown up (remember the programs where you HAD to have an official floppy in the machine to run it, slowed everything way down, made it pretty inconvenient) where with modern technology (high capacity, fast disks) at least some of the problems are solved and the only ones who don't win are the pirates.
Comments, anyone?
Cameron |
