Ed Foster’s Gripelog column this week asks “Why You Should Stop Before You Click. This week the Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT) coalition announced its “Stop Before You Click” campaign promoting its 12 Principles for Fair Commerce in Software and Other Digital Products. But what does AFFECT mean by all that? After we stop before we click, what do we do next?”
The Twelve Principles read like a great start on a new relationship between commercial software vendors (and electronic consumer products) and their customers. Here’s some of the preamble:
When you buy an off-the-shelf product for yourself or your business, you expect the law to provide you with some basic rights. For example, your car will work as advertised. Or you will be allowed to legally sell the television set when you upgrade to a new one and you wouldn’t expect something as simple as lending a book to a friend to create any problems for you.
It might surprise you to learn, then, that the rights you are accustomed to when you buy traditional goods and services may not apply when you purchase digital products.
Vendors ought to study these ideas.