The Great Software Fraud Preface -- A powerful, hard hitting, urgent book exposing how software is fraudulently marketed, to deceive people and deprive us of normal consumer rights in software sales. Shows how software works and is developed, explains why software patents are invalid, covers copyrights, exposes UCITA as a total scam to extort the public's rights and money; lays out new fairer legislation. Current UCITA will be the model for all future digital commerce -- at the consumer's expense. Provides ways to give meaningful feedback to key Government agencies that count.

	PREFACE TO THE GREAT SOFTWARE FRAUD The following text from "The Great Software Fraud" is copyrighted as part of that book by the Publisher, and may not be used without their permission. It is shown here only to help you make a decision as to the value of this book for you and all others concerned about how Software afftects our future. Note that this Preview Feature is another first provided only by TrueBooks!

	PREFACE "THE GREAT SOFTWARE FRAUD"
	Software is the only retail product sold in the U.S. today where the manufacturer has no obligations or liabilities whatsoever to the consumer. When you buy a stereo, T.V., refrigerator, car, boat, house or plane, you have rights that protect you from fraud, deception, defective products, as well as recourse against a manufacturer for consequences that may arise out of the use of bad or misrepresented products. Even when you sign an agreement, like a loan, service contract, or lease to use a product for some purpose, the law gives you rights as a renter or "lessee" that prevent the company who sold the loan or lease from taking unfair advantage of you. In fact, U.S. courts have often decided in favor of the consumer, and have overruled contractual wording, where the stipulations are unreasonable. For goodness sake, even when you buy a computer itself, you have all kinds of rights that let you come back at the manufacturer, to make them fix bad or defective products. So why should it be any different for computer software (the programs that you run on your computer)? What makes computer software so magically different than every other product or service sold or marketed in the U.S. today? What is so special about it that software manufacturers can get away with no obligations whatsoever, leaving consumers with no recourse for defects, damage, irresponsibility, misrepresentation, or being taken advantage of by the manufacturer? If software was irrelevant in today's world, this would not even be an important issue -- but software has become vital to business, corporate, and even home life in the U.S. today (as in many other countries) -- so the questions raised above are extremely important ones. Software has the potential to cause much more damage to a person's life, work, income and business, than most other similarly priced products sold in the U.S. Yet every manufacturer of such other products can be held accountable for defects in, or damage from, their products .... so why not software? If software is just as important as a telephone, fax, filing cabinet, Rolodex, or typewriter to any modern business, what makes it so unique? What gives manufacturers the right to be unreproachable, what allows them to operate above the law? Is there some trait inherent in software that makes it "different" from all other products ever sold or marketed? What exactly is unique, special or "magical" about computer software? The answer, in truth, is absolutely nothing. Naturally, software companies will cry otherwise. Computer analysts, pundits, programmers, writers, and other supposed "experts" can use all kinds of arguments why software should be viewed differently than "over-the-counter" products, but they are all arguing from biased viewpoints. What happened is, in the formative years of PCs (1979-1989) software manufacturers preemptively claimed that software is different, and must be treated differently than all other products. But neither lawyers nor lawmakers knew enough about software in those early years to counter their claims. So a fake mystique was created about the "uniqueness" of the software "product". With time, this false understanding -- of exactly what software is, what it does, if it is patentable, and what are people's rights when buying it -- has evolved into a single-minded mindset throughout the computer industry, which people now just seem to accept, without question. Hence, more than 95% of supposed software "experts" and legal "advisors" today actually believe the aberrant concepts they have been spoon fed by the major software manufacturers, which of course, support their claims that software is unique. Such "experts" are unable to step outside their narrow mindset to evaluate the issue from a truly objective, unbiased perspective. It is also very difficult to change a "mindset", once it becomes the established way of thinking. Anyone who disagrees is labeled "ignorant" or "unaware", and needs to read "expert opinions" to "educate" them into the "correct" way of thinking. Such brainwashing and squelching of new, original thought is rampant throughout the computer software industry. This book will destroy all ignorance about what software is, what it does, and what can validly be claimed about it, including patentability. At the end of it, every faithful reader of this book -- no matter what level of computer savvy you may or may not have -- will be fully armed with an arsenal of accurate, irrefutable knowledge that will give you the power to stand your ground -- or take action if you wish -- against any and all demands and stipulations based on fake or deceptive software claims. This book takes a totally different approach than every other book written about computer software. Yes, it is written by professionals who were into computers before the PC revolution began, who did low-level assembly language programming at the dawn of the PC software industry, who do technical research, and who are experts in the broader sales, legal and consumer aspects of computer hardware and software. But No, it is not at all complicated or hard to understand -- and No, it does not follow or propound any "conventional" way of thinking whatsoever. Instead, it analyzes computer software from the ground up, without preconceptions. When you strip away all the biases, prejudices and half-truths about computer software that have been fed to you over the years, you are in for some pretty shocking realizations. You start to see that: 1. Software manufacturers' claims about the proprietary nature of computer software, "trade secrets", and their "patent-protected intellectual property" (or similar intimidating words), are largely ungrounded. 2. Software manufacturers have dictatorial power over consumers. 3. Software manufacturers are indeed legally and ethically responsible for what they sell, but U.S. laws have failed to make them accountable. 4. The "software license agreement", that you are forced to agree to, is one of the greatest deceptions ever perpetrated upon the U.S. public. 5. Software is not something unique or magical, but merely a product with a purpose useful to human beings, little different than a book or car. Other books feed on the general public ignorance of how software operates, and seek to "educate dumb users" about "our" accepted software concepts and practices. This book takes exactly the opposite approach. It assumes you're intelligent and you know what you want from a computer. It strips software naked of the charade and mystique surrounding it, and exposes software for exactly what it is. It shows why software companies have duped you all along. It shows what you should demand of software to make it worthwhile, and why few programs today measure up. Finally it exposes the deception and false claims in software license agreements, and how it is illegal and unconstitutional for you to agree to them. A year ago, when the first draft of this book was written, a broader public exposé of software was not such an urgent goal. Now it is. Only last week, a national committee of supposed "legal experts", approved a legislative packet (which will soon be approved by all states in the U.S.) that takes away what little power consumers once had in a software sale, and gives it all to the larger software companies, thereby granting them total dictatorial power over consumers. In the future you will be legally liable for all license agreements you agree to (in other words, all software you use). Software manufacturers will have the legal power to disable your software at will, making your business chaos, insolvent, or bankrupt. All of your data may be rendered useless -- yet you could be hauled into court to face criminal charges for little more than just owning a computer. You don't believe this? How could any "justice" system allow such corruption to go on? Obviously you don't realize the huge multi-billion dollar business that software sales has become. Most larger software companies have pumped tens of millions of dollars into intense lobbying campaigns aimed at brainwashing legislators and lawyers into swallowing their side of the software story. The situation is now so one-sided, and will become worse with passing of this legislation, that if you simply sit back and do nothing, all your rights to a fair software sale will disappear. Although a few industry advocates have fervently tried to raise a broader public awareness of just how serious the situation is, they've only reached technically savvy computer managers. And most industry writers still don't realize that even the most fundamental claims about software being proprietary are flawed from the beginning. No one has yet reached the public at large -- in simple terms they can easily understand -- to show why the claims of the big software manufacturers are not only fallacious, but also legally invalid. The reason is because no one has started from scratch. No one's gone back to square one, to show in clear, vivid terms, exactly what software is, what it does, and what can or cannot be validly claimed about it. That's exactly what this book will do, for all readers. No contributor to this book bears malice to any software company, or holds any grudges against anyone in the software industry. In the past we have actually helped a lot of companies improve software, by testing, review, and evaluation. But now the scene is different -- the big software companies have drawn battle lines to fight an all-out battle for superiority in the issue of software sales, and they won't give up until they win, with their side of the issue fully protected by state and federal legislation. So now it's time for the public to pull themselves together and face this battle head on, demanding fairness and equity in all software sales. The bottom line of this battle is: your money, freedom, and right to a fair treatment are at stake. This book now vigorously pursues your right to fair treatment, with absolutely no punches pulled. Buy this book, take it home and read it thoroughly, and you will be armed with an arsenal of accurate knowledge of the truth, that no person can take away from you. This knowledge will show you how to legally protect yourself, as well as free yourself of any guilt concerning software, and it will show you how to kick legislators in the butt, to make them wake up to the truth, if you so desire to go that far. But if you put this book down, and do not buy it and read it, you will be forfeiting your right to fair treatment with software. If you know any people in key governmental or legislative positions, especially lawyers, judges, magistrates, senators, congressmen, and so on, would you please encourage them to read this book, even if it means you buying a copy for them and sending it to them. Software companies have preyed in the past on the gullibility of judges and legislators concerning their unawareness of the limitations of software. Only through a broader awareness of the truth of key software issues, especially in legislative arms of the public, will it ever be possible to bring about fairness for all. We are getting this book directly to the public for the least possible cost, to help it become widespread as quickly as possible. And, while we hold no malice towards any software companies, we believe that they've blindly followed their narrow, self-righteous "mindset" a little too far, this time. It is fundamentally and ethically wrong to make the public suffer, just so a few dozen big companies can reap in more billions of dollars than they already have. We hope the many smaller software developers worldwide will understand why we have to be so blunt in this book: only through limiting the unilateral dictatorial power of big companies, do the small guys have any hope of making their efforts more widely known. After this book first hits the shelves and the internet, there may be little more than 12 months, maximum, for the public to react, and quickly let their feelings be known -- after that, you can forever hold your peace. And you can be sure that, unless there is a groundswell of public opinion against the current and planned future trend of software legislation, big software companies will lord almost total control over you in the future. Yet the knowledge in this book alone can accomplish that groundswell, if you take the time to share it with others. You know what you need to do, and there is little time to do it, before your freedom and privacy are lost.
	SO DO IT!

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