Media Portal being sold on ebay!! ?? (1 Viewer)

[Khris]

Ebay has removed the link due to the fact I wasn't really offering anything in the auction except information.

I'll be rewording it and relisting it.

 

[mzemina]

I've seen other sell nothing more than information. If you sell a letter stating you can show me how to get the greatest media software for free I'll buy it for $1.00USD - make sure you have the length of days large so it can stay out there as long as possible to get the word out.

Mike

 

[Khris]

Here is my revised Auction which Ebay hopefully won't shut down.

Ebay Link

 

[pieroxy]

Here is my revised Auction which Ebay hopefully won't shut down.

Ebay Link

While I more or less agree with the content of your ebay auction, the wording and tone you use just discredits the whole thing. By saying stuff like "lowlife scum", you just discard your entire speech. Nobody will believe someone they don't know and who is very obviously angry.

Moreover, AFAIK, "You can charge for the media the software is distributed on (but not the actual software)" is just a plain lie. You can charge for whatever you want, including the software. The GPL guarantees the software will be free as in freedom, not as in $0.

 

[Khris]

While I more or less agree with the content of your ebay auction, the wording and tone you use just discredits the whole thing. By saying stuff like "lowlife scum", you just discard your entire speech. Nobody will believe someone they don't know and who is very obviously angry.

Moreover, AFAIK, "You can charge for the media the software is distributed on (but not the actual software)" is just a plain lie. You can charge for whatever you want, including the software. The GPL guarantees the software will be free as in freedom, not as in $0.

Thanks for your "support"! :roll:

 

[pieroxy]

Thanks for your "support"! :roll:

I'm not sure if that is supposed to be sarcastic, but I guess it is. I am just trying to help. There is definitely something morally ambiguous here, but definitely nothing legally wrong.

So trying to hurt these guys (selling MP on ebay) is at least debatable. Trying to inform people of what they are buying is more certainly on the 'right' side. But then there is no need to insult anyone, use foul language or even just plain lie. Let's try to think of the potential buyers of this CD as reponsible people that are capable of taking an informed decision. Just telling them:
"You know, you can get this for free if you have a decent internet connection"
is (IMO) a better way than saying:
"They are the sux0r, lame asses and you shouldn't buy this product. They are breaking n laws and exploiting a free software".

Now everyone is free and responsible of his own actions. I am just giving an advice.

 

[Khris]

Moreover, AFAIK, "You can charge for the media the software is distributed on (but not the actual software)" is just a plain lie.

This is *NOT* a lie. You can not sell GPL software for a price. The GPL strictly forbids this.

As I stated, you can charge for the media the software is distributed on, and any technical support you provide, but you can *NOT* charge for the actual piece of software.

 

[pieroxy]

This is *NOT* a lie. You can not sell GPL software for a price. The GPL strictly forbids this.

You almost had me on that one! I had to re-read for the second time the GPL just to check! And for your information, the GPL does not strictly forbid anything of that sort.

What it says is that you may charge for services such as distribution, and it also says that "When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price". But there is nothing about charging money for the software itself.

Unless I am missing something or that we're not talking about the same GPL.

From there: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html

 

[jazZman]

Hi Folks,
I’m not sure that I should wade in here at all, but here goes…

Kris,
I congratulate you on your efforts, posting on Ebay with the identical product name was a great idea. Now at least if a potential buyer does see these scam artists listings, they will see yours too, and perhaps they will think twice.

As far as the selling of Open Source is concerned, as a senior IT Project Manager for a large financial institution here in Australia, we purchase Open Source software packages from our suppliers all the time. We also purchase support for these packages from their developers, normally as a separate item.
Why pay for Open Source??
We pay, because we understand that the developers need to eat, pay their rent and put their kids through school. If we do not support the Developers by paying for their work, they will cease to improve their product.
Also buy financing further development of a product, we can request the developers to customise the product or add features that we believe are useful.

Pieroxy,
As any good lawyer / solicitor will tell you, there are two parts to a law, they are:
• The intent or spirit of the law (what the law was designed to cover or protect)

• The letter of the law, (the actual wording of the law, which is open for interpretation. This is where the legal eagles make all there money)

You are absolutely correct, within the letter of the law, Open Source software can be distributed and or supported for a fee.(sorry Kris)
That fee is freely governed by the market, so you can charge what market is willing to pay.

In saying that, I believe that the intent of this part of the GPL (from reading the entire document) was to allow developers to fund their projects and not for profiteers to unscrupulously make a buck off the hard work of others.

What you cannot do under the GPL and for that matter, Fair Trading legislation (in this country anyway), is deliberately misrepresent the product and or service provided.

The majority of these sellers deliberately misconstrue the name of the product, so that anyone searching Google on this title (Windows XP Media Portal Edition Center 2005) will be presented with out of the first 50 listings, 45 hits on M$ product and 5 on Media Portal.
They also tend to lay out their listings / advertisements in the same format as those selling MCE again in a deliberate to mislead the prospective buyer.

As I have said before, If your going to sell a pile of bricks, then call it a pile of bricks, not a kit home...

I have a strong moral objection to these sellers profiting from the toil of others, without contributing back to the (Media Portal) community or the developers, so therefore I back Kris’s efforts completely. But I do agree with Pieroxy, that a Newbie to the wonderful world of HTPC would be more inclined to take advice from someone using more polite tones and reason rather than those that could be construed as defamatory or abusive.

Just had another thought……
Why don’t we sell Media Portal.
We could burn the most stable release (.013), the open source add on packs and a few of the CVS files and flog it for say $10.00. This would cover the media, label printing etc.
Any profit we could forward on to Frodo and the guys to buy toys with to assist the ongoing development.
This would act as a deterrent to the bottom feeders that pry upon the gullible as well as providing a service to those who do not have adequate bandwidth to pull down large files
And possibly provide a small income source for those who really earned it


Just an Idea

Cheers :wink:

Jamie

 

[Callifo]

jazZman, that seems like a good enough idea but go one step further and say in the ad the MP sourceforge page. That way people that cant download it for some reason can still get it but others can otherwise download it. That way most people would simply join up.

I have for the last few weeks been reporting MP sales to ebay australia (very little luck), of one guys thats so far made $175 on MP. He seems to have stopped for now but if it starts again, and identical listing should go up for the cost of almost nothing. I was also emailing all the buyers about MPs homepage and most responses were that they bought it simply because they couldnt afford the whole MCE package. The wording used is unfortunately so good that no hits to anything MP related comes up until about 4 pages deep in google.