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Way more money has been stolen legally by those who make the laws then will ever be stolen by those that have to obey them. But I sleep better at night just knowing that big business and politicians are doing it the legal way. :rolleyes:

Amanda and Tacogirl...thank you for the valuable insights into customs. My offer still stands and I would be happy to bring this software down.

I just deleted my earlier post because I was afraid it could have been interpreted in a way that I had not intended. My apologies if I offended anyone. I am not trying to judge people...I am only trying to offer ideas.

Should copying be a right?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2006/10/061031_copyright.shtml

Adman, I was being sarcastic about the GOB collecting duties on just about everything brought into Belize. I have read here that some people have paid duty on the shipping charges for items sent to Belize. We do bring donated supplies for SAGA etc.with us every time we visit. But have been lucky to avoid duties when we explained where the items were going to (And did not try to hide them). We also have paid excess and overweight baggage charges to the airlines for donated items but it is well worth it as it is very hard to get some of the items in belize.

Dabunk, "Let see now, Microsofts new Vista program (replacing XP as we speak) per their "rules" can only be installed on one computer. If your hard drive fails, you as the legal owner of that software, cannot reinstall it on your own computer. You will be required to buy a whole new OS license. Can you spell legal "rape" another way???"

This is not true. If you have an OEM version of VISTA (ships with the computer) you may not copy it to another computer but you can replace the O/S on a new hard drive on the same system.
Recent controversy has been over your rights to copy the "retail version" (ususally bought in a store or online or volume licensing) to another computer if you erase it from the original computer. The license agreement said that it could only be done once. However, after user feedback, Microsoft changed its agreement (EULA) and now will allow you to copy it to a different computer as often as you require as long as you only use it on only one computer.
The significant change is that if your VISTA is not recognized by Microsoft as a genuine version, it will stop working after allowing you a period of time to get a genuine copy or work with them to show that it is genuine. Currently Windows XP will continue to work if it is not recognized as genuine but updates will not be allowed. I expect that Office 2007 will also have similar protections. If you are using "copied" software, you may need to learn Open Office or another program because soon copies of Microsoft products will not work on your computers.

Ahhh, the good ol' "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation". Luckily it took the hacker community about 2 seconds to release a crack for the XP version. I predict the Vista crack will come out even quicker.

Another way to access word processing, spell check, and spreadsheets for free is a new service called Google Docs and Spreadsheets. http://docs.google.com/
It will read Word or Open Office docs.

OpenOffice is fully compatible with MS office and allows you to save in the various file formats which are associated with MS programs. With MS and Novell (owners of Suse Linux) now in a 'partnership' this looks likely to continue.

If you want a truly free setup use Linux, there are may flavours - I prefer Suse but that is an opinion. It used to be a techies tool but now it's very friendly and easy to use. It can be downloaded for free. Support and regular updates can be got for $50 but that is FAR cheaper than XP or Vista. Also the spyware, viruses etc etc. which plague windows users are much less prevelant on Linux.

If you can get past the market speak - http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/ gives you a good idea. Click on view demo.

The disadvantages - well, it's not for games and there is a slight learning curve but if you want mainly office tools and email - go Linux.

Geek speak over. We'll be down in 10 days.....WooHoo!!!

Adman I am interested but will most likely have something by the time you come.

We can chat closer to time maybe and see.

Peace

...."As big as the US is, it's laws do not entend beyond it's boarders.".... "On the other hand I do agree the American govt. is bizarre in its interference beyond its own boarders...."

Should Boarders confused about Borders, be legal?