Recently I had an incident with ebay which I felt very upset about. On one hand the linux world is trying so hard to push the concept of FREE open source software, then I got slam in my face because ebay consider linux pirated software.
My incident is pretty much similar to this:
http://www.linux.com/feature/27022
which was upssetting since it was in 2002. Basically, ebay pull the plug on my auction stating that the Linux I am selling is counterfeit and I should not list them again in the future.
Perhaps it people around south east asis is still very much stuff with the concept that software must come in a box and must be printed in factories. To be honest, even from Microsoft, I had tons of legal software which I do not even have the media for each license. All that matters was the piece of paper that state my rights to the software and the COA. In terms of moving ahead, Microsoft had done their parts not to make too much extra CD/DVD. Imagine if I needed like 101 copies of WinXP just to prove its original when I have the site license for it?
On the other hand, I guess open source software did not do its part to educate the world, well, at least not ebay. I had passed a friend of mine a DVD-R copy of Fedora and he whisper... "Err, we cannot use pirated software here... but btw, what's the CD-KEY?" I stared blankly at him. Obviously, FREE open source doesn't archive that it is suppose so.
But ebay really took it to the top. Linux IS piracy. Haha, I bet Microsoft guys must be laughing off their chairs now. Any copy, or for that matters, even my printed version of Ubuntu IS piracy. I am simply not allowed to sell Linux!!! That doesn't happens with Microsoft or other software. I listed them before and as long as I provides picture of the box, its perfectly ok.
I guess I could just walk and forget about Linux. It doesn't hurt because I wanted to do this more as a service than a profit. Some Linux are huge and I guess really painful for some users, I ust hope through me, it could reach out to them. Imagine downloading 4GB of data with a 2Mbps line.
Despite my contact to ebay, I believe I am speaking to a robot with the name of Sandra S. who simply cut and paste whatever ebay policy there is no matter what I ask or type in my request. This is probably something I did not need to do. Just tell myself, it is pointless fighting for it. Just accept the fact, Linux IS piracy. So, we all should stop selling pirated software such as Linux (including Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse) on ebay. Yes, just switch to Windows. Its the only legal operating system regconized by ebay.
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