On Sat, 08 Jul 2006 14:24:32 -0400, alexy wrote:

Mark & Juanita wrote:

On Sat, 08 Jul 2006 14:23:50 GMT, Han wrote:

"John L. Poole" wrote in news:OTOrg.116838
:

snip

Maybe I'm missing something here. The Google Sketchup download page says
new version, but it appears still free. Of course they would like you to
buy the US$496.00 pro version, but it does not appear to be required.

Have you tried using the new version on old files?

As the OP indicated in a subsequent reply, the new free version does
work. However, this should be a real red flag to those taking advantage of
the "free" version. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the new
version is also dated to expire at some future date. It is also not beyond
the realm of possibility that in the future, after people have invested
considerable time and effort in the creation of various files and
projects, that the "free" version could go away, leaving the only [legal
according to the DMCA] options available to either pay for the professional
version in order to liberate one's files or to abandon those files and the
accompanying work.

Sure doesn't seem to fall under the "do no evil" code by which Google
supposedly lives. At a minimum, the fact that the software will expire at
a future date should be disclosed.

That hypothetical situation, certainly would violate a "do no evil"
code. But I've seen nothing that they have done that violates it. And
where are folks getting the idea that the software will expire at some
future date? I haven't seen anything to that effect.

I would argue that since it was not prominently disclosed that the
software being downloaded had a timebomb (it may have been buried somewhere
several pages down in 6 point type in the click-through EULA) is a
questionable practice in itself and seems to violate the spirit of what
Google purports to be compared to other software houses.

It's not a stretch to assume that the versions being downloaded are also
set to expire since the current version others have used were so set.




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If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

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