theft

[biquige1]

Is it ok for a company to be selling this knoppix cd for $4 like this? Its just a burnt cd w/ no documentation. Is knoppix no longer free? Because $4 for a burnt cd is crazy!

[Harry Kuhman]

• 1) This post is being moved to the lounge from the General Support forum, no support is really called for here.
  
  2) It's not theft. Anyone is free to sell copies of Knoppix . The group who put Knoppix together made clear that they permitted this, so you can't call it theft.
  
  2a) Knoppix itself might be crossing the line or at least playing it close and loose with the GPL requirements of source code distribution. I've never tried to track everything down myself, but from what I see on these forums it seems like the source code for all of the included software is not being "made available" as completely as the licensing terms require if you take them literally. So in that sense any CD reseller may be in violation too. But one would be hard presses to justtify going after a reseller on those grounds if Knoppix itself isn't being challenged by the IP owners.
  
  3) I sure wouldn't buy such a CD, and I strongly try to discourage anyone else from doing so either. Not only would buying such a CD support someone who is trying to profit from other's work, but it will usually get you a defective product. We have seen over and over again here that such CDs are virtually always burnt at high speed (and often on dubious quality media) and it has been shown here over and over again that high speed Knoppix burns have boot problems that low speed burns don't. Someone selling copies f the CD to others is likely to be out to maximize their profits, and is much more likely to try to burn the CD in a minute or so than to take over 15 minutes to burn it properly.
  
  4) It was quite strange that you would include not only the URL for the very company that you were supposedly complaining about, but would include a second URL for the same company in your post. Almost as if you were a g.d. forum spammer trying to increase your SEO by posing a URL, but didn't want to look so obvious so made a negative comment at the same time. You'll be glad to know that I edited out the URL of this company that you say you dislike so much, and added it to the spam filter so it will not be posted again!

[NewB4Life]

it's only $4 man! come on! that's like charging $1 for the download bandwidth and then $12 and hour to md5sum the iso and burn it and write on it and package and post it?
Did They Actually Charge For This Or Are You Being Anal?

[Clinton]

Is knoppix no longer free? Because $4 for a burnt cd is crazy!

Knoppix is free. On our download page we explain how you can download it for free and there's even a link to BitTorrent for those who don't have it.

Some people still prefer to have the CD. And prefer that someone else downloads the files and puts it on a CD for them and posts it to their address. And they're willing to pay a few dollars for this service. If nobody is compelling you to use such a service I do not see where your grievance is.

While I agree with Harry that there are some dubious sellers, we have never had a problem with the company we recommend on the download page. This site has sent them thousands of customers without a single complaint so far.

Well done to Harry for spotting the link issue - they never get past him!

[chip.ling]

I used to buy a lot of those shareware, freeware on 5.25" floppy and tried them out on my machine. Back to the day I was using a 300 pbs modem, sorry no internet yet, need to be member and dial up to the local BBS for chatting.

Later on, before I brought my Canadian $300+ cd writer, I did ordered a lot of CD from those companies too.

Today, I download the Linux software all the time.

To most of us, living in the developed countries, with high speed internet is so popular and affordable, it is really hard to imagine somewhere on the other side of the world, people may be still using dial up connection or may not have access to internet at all, at the same time, cd writer may not be a default hardware on each pc. So these companies play an important role to them.

For the pricing, $4 is not too bad, even it maybe a lot for the developing countries users. However, it's still better than the over a hundred dollar Microsoft windows.

I would say let the market decides whether these company can stay or not.

Rgds,
Chip

[Cuddles]

Wow!

Strong words said, theft?

It is only theft if you don't approve of it, or agree to it... I for one, did buy one of those $4 CDs, because at the time, I didn't have the bandwidth, nor the burner. Lots of things have changed over the years though. I was glad to pay the money. I was even surprised at the cost. What with shipping, packaging, the cost of the media, and even the little protective envelope costs money. Not to mention the time the person used to burn it for me, and the wear and tear on the persons machine in lack of my own machine. They also had to use the bandwidth and time to download the initial .iso in the first place.

Considering all the above "costs" the person is taking on, so that someone can just plunk down a few bucks, without having to do any of the above, I think $4 is considerably small for all the work and stuff they did. But, then again, if I had my way, and the company Knoppix is suggesting did raise the rates to more of what _I_ think they are costing them, you would only have something MORE to complain about... Right?

Durn right it's THEFT, but I think it is the purchaser of the CD who is doing the stealing, and NOT the company who is doing the purchaser the service here... Again, these are my opinions and not those of Knoppix, or the company who is actually doing the burning... just my own...

LC

[Clinton]

$4?

Cuddles, I wonder what you'd say if you saw the price over the last few months. It's $1.95 for the CD. Seriously! Less than $2 demonstrates the power of the market. If lower input costs don't result in a lower sales price someone else will move in and take your business.