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Mike in Mystic
 
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Default Think twice before buying a Stots dovetail jig.

If you're really that intimidated by an end-user license agreement than you
need to drink some stronger Scotch and get some courage. Holy crap.

If you have a shop and have employees and want them to use templates you
make from Mr. Stot's template master..... DO IT! How in God's name do you
think he'll find out? If you want to sell the jig to someone else (I
concede that ebay might be a little overt) then go ahead! Do you really
think Mr. Stot is going to sue someone for damages in the amount of $20? As
if he could even find out anyway.

I really wonder how some people get through the day if they're this afraid
and/or affected by these types of things.

"Hans Lehmann" wrote in message
...
I've never seen anything quite this bizarre. Stots (www.stots.com)
makes the TemplateMaster dovetail jig. Actually, it's more like a jig
for making the dovetail jig which is then used for the actual dovetails.
I was looking around for my first dovetail jig ( I tried doing it by
hand once, then decided no way!).

In any case, if you read the user agreement on his web site (which seems
to written in an intentionally hard-to-read font), you'll find that
you're not actually buying the jig. You're only buying the rights to
use the jig. These rights are restricted to the person that actually
bought the jig. You may also not sell the jig to anyone else, nor allow
anyone at any other shop to use it.

So, if you've got a woodworking business that's lucky enough to have
more than just yourself in it's employ, you'll need to buy a template
for every woodworker in the shop. If an employee quits, then I guess
you'll need to throw the template away and buy a new one for the next
guy.

Thinking of buying one to try out, and if it doesn't suit your needs
you'll just it sell on EBay or at your next garage sale? Think again.
You could be sued for damages for violating the terms of the agreement.

Think that buying something actually means that it belongs to you, and
that no court would ever actually uphold such an agreement? Think again.
Some recent court rulings have gone the other way.

These fine print contracts that you've agreed to by the simple act of
opening the package used to be limited mostly to computer software. Now
they're showing up on actual physical products that have nothing to do
with a computer. Either Mr. Stots has hired an over-zealous lawyer, or
he's pretty unethical himself. In any case, I would *never* buy
anything from his company.