Comments on: SPSS and My Outrageous Software Licensing Experience

By: http://

http:// — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:38:25 +0000

Hey Rob, love your blog. What they are doing is not just wrong, it’s a violation of Federal Law, specifically the Uniform Commercial Code. The book “Bad Software” outlines your rights here. The author’s site http://badsoftware.com/chapter1.htm gives enough of an overview that you can challenge this even if you don’t want to get his book. You haven’t agreed to the license agreement and they didn’t present you with a chance to inspect the goods before paying, so this is a cut and dried case. Personally I’d recommend fighting this just to teach them they can’t violate federal law and get away with it. And if they won’t refund the money, do a chargeback.

By: http://

http:// — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:41:23 +0000

While SPSS is being inept from a “customer experience” perspective, I think it should be clarified: When you buy software you are not buying the code, of course. You’re buying the right to *use* that software, either on a term basis, or in perpetuity. You don’t own the software. You maybe own the media it came on (if any). Whether or not you should then have the ability to turn around and sell your *right to use* that software to someone else, well, that’s the $64K question. Your request to transfer it (per the license terms) to someone else seems reasonable and SPSS should honor it. Maybe you should sue them in your local Small Claims court and see what happens.

By: Rob Walling

Rob Walling — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:16:42 +0000

kd – I’ve heard of R; it’s one of the tools my wife’s professor eventually used to help with some of the stats on this project. The learning curve is steep, but it seems to be THE tool for hard-core stats people. I have not heard of JMP. bloid – An interesting thought. In my case, my wife installed it and tried it out for 30 minutes before realizing it wouldn’t do the trick. I somehow doubt that SPSS would allow me to sell it on Amazon if she had not agreed (unless I threatend to sue them or something dramatic like that). But your point is valid.

By: bloid

bloid — Tue, 08 May 2007 09:02:28 +0000

If you hadn’t installed the software though, then you would not have agreed to the licence so would you then be eligible to sell it on? Surely the licence is only binding if you tick the “I agree”?

By: http://

http:// — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:30:46 +0000

I just finished my first draft for my final thesis and unfortunately I had to use SPSS. I consider myself to be a pretty calm and laidback guy but I truly hate SPSS! No piece of software has ever gotten me to hate its guts, but SPSS has pulled it off. Frequent and random crashes. An utterly contemptible interface. Ugly screen refreshes. Inconsistent menus. And not to mention the license agreement. The list goes on and on.

By: kd

kd — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:32:57 +0000

Yes, SPSS is employs gouge pricing and draconian licencing restrictions. As a result, I’ve sworn off SPSS wherever possible. These days I tend to use JMP which my non-statistical friends tells me has a better user interface. More importantly I think it provides better facilities for not shooting yourself in the foot. When JMP doesn’t cut it for me, I use R (http://r-project.org) which despite the rather severe learning curve is an excellent piece of free software. My friends in the R community are telling me that it’s becoming the lingua franca for professional statisticians as well.