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This lecture is presented from an engineers point of view.
Lawyers have their own language and logic, quite different
from specialized technical people. Always consult a
lawyer on any legal matter.
"FREE as in free to use and modify, not FREE as in free beer."
Be Legal
Do not steal from your competitors
Do not hack your competitors computers
Do not use illegal wiretap on your competitors
Do not violate license or contract terms
Compete aggressively
Do get and use competitors pricing
Do get and use competitors warranty
Do get and use competitors Better Business Bureau rating
Do get and use testimonials bashing your competitors
Do listen to your competitors in public places
e.g. restaurants, bars, airplanes, stores
Do copy competitors features that help your sales
Categories of Software
Company proprietary software.
Commercial licensed software.
Open source software.
Software Protections
Copyright and Patent.
Software can be copyrighted. Just doing a physical embodiment makes
you the owner of the copyright. Add Copyright year name to the
document or computer file. If you want your copyright to stand up
in a court of law, you need to file the copyright. Get the latest
information, at one time there was a $40.00 filing fee and the
copyright was good for 28 years, renewable for 67 more years, for
a total of 95 years.
There is a "fair use" clause that allows personal use of parts
of a copyrighted document.
Software and hardware and processes may be patented. A utility
patent is good for 20 years, a design patent is good for 14 years.
The cost of completing the process of getting a patent is variable.
20 years ago the average cost was $5,000.00 and today the average
cost is about $15,000.00. There are companies that can help you,
do-it-yourself, with advertised cost starting from about $1,500.00.
(There may be additional maintenance fees at 3 1/2 years etc.)
((It may take a year or more to get a patent.))
One version of the process to get a patent is:
"Free" patents online has many patents available by their number.
Unfortunately, they do not make available the figures, making
most useless. e.g. 5272660
freepatentsonline.com/5272660.html
There is no "fair use" clause on patents.
License:
commercial.
open source, Free Software Foundation.
GNU General Public License, GPL
open source, Berkeley Software Distribution.
BSD
Comparison
Software Cost
1. Initial Cost
Some commercial software is available for a trial period free.
Some commercial software is free for a somewhat limited version.
Some commercial software is free but not open source.
Some open source software is free.
Some open source software is free with an option to buy support.
Some open source software must be purchased.
2. Cost of Ownership
Training.
Updating.
Yearly license fees.
Efficiency from a computer and people perspective.
In preparing this lecture, it is the first time in over
20 years that I have read a software license/agreement,
that I click "yes", in order to use the software.
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013
Subject: How to Choose the Right BI Vendor
Business intelligence (BI) is increasingly important but
choosing, implementing, and managing a proper BI solution
is not always so simple. Choosing the right vendor is critical
and that requires some insight on which providers will have
the right type of solution for your particular organization.
This free Enterprise Business Intelligence Comparison Guide
will give you a more complete picture of the entire BI landscape.
* Gain a comprehensive understanding of the BI market place
* Compare providers based on technologies and specialties
* Discover which BI solutions are supported on mobile devices
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