Having been in the chromatography software business for a decade and a half, I'd like to elaborate a bit on Tim's comments.
There are really three issues involved: legal, commercial and ethical.
Legal. As Tim pointed out, most software is licensed rather than sold. While that may sound like a distinction without a difference, it is, in fact a big deal. It means that you don't "own" the software in the same sense that you would own a piece of equipment. What you have is the right to use the software under a defined set of conditions. You have to read the specific license agreement to see what you are or are not allowed to do. If, for example, the license is for unlimited-time use on a single system, then you would be perfectly within your rights to borrow a copy of the software in order to re-install it on that system. You would be out of compliance with the license if you used your original disks to install the software on a second system.
Commercial. Software users (rightly) expect support. The catch is, that support has to be paid for somehow. "Subscription-based" support has been, in my experience, hard to sell. In practice, that means that support costs are subsidized by sales of new or upgraded software which, in turn, means that there is no incentive for the manufacturer to provide you with a copy of old disks. It is in their interest to have you upgrade to the latest and greatest version.
Ethical. In general, depriving someone (the manufacturer) of revenue that is rightfully theirs is theft, pure and simple. Otherwise, "no harm, no foul". The catch is that you have to make that decision without sophistry. Examples of copying software:
- you have a "use" license and you're reinstalling on the original system (per above). This is both legal and ethical.
- you have a use license and you're installing on a replacement computer connected to the original system. This may or may not be legel (depends o n the fine print in the license), but would certainly be ethical in my book.
- you have contacted the manufacturer and have been told that the old version is no longer available and that you should upgrade to a newer version. Unethical
- you have contacted the manufacturer and have been told that the old version is no longer available but We don't have it, but ". . . if you can find a copy, go ahead . . ."). Ethical
- the manufacturer has gotten out of the business entirely (not sold the line to a different company). Ethical
The list could go on and on, (but I've been too wordy already!
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