Brian,
There reason we are having this discussion today is because of this sad sorry affair. Nancy and I felt an ethical obligation to share what we experienced with the greater AC community and what we had "learned" about the EULA and how it can and would be used. So I tried to describe the basics so everyone could understand what kind of things they may or may not want to see in such a legal agreement. But to Jon's and AC's credit just look: We are having this public excahnge right here and right now. So as I said earlier, Nancy and I have hope that this is going to work out pretty well in the long run.
I'm not sure it is possible but what about something stating that the EULA you sign on with on your original purchase date is the one that is in effect for you and your practice unless yoiu care to and agree to move on to a more recent version? I mention this so that we don't need to continually read and be concerned about changes to the EULA each and every time we take our regular updates. This way the goal post don't constantly keep moving everytime you take the updates you have paid for. Not sure any of us would want this but perhaps older more long term users could be grandfathered in on their old EULA from the original start dates too. This may get clumsy for AC to handle trying to remember 25 different EULA's but it does give the user certain protections that I think most of us were looking for.
I noticed the promise to not insert programs or spyware that can harm or disable our computers which is good, but it does seem to avoid the idea of being able to disable the program itself. I gather that we and many other users would like to see that AC the program itself clearly listed as something that will never be disabled as well.
The termination clause seems better, but still some what vague...What is good cause for termination? It seems that one must always pay their annual renewel fees or that one is terminated. Does this mean we are no longer welcome in AC land in general or are we now banned from legally using the program? Personally I would like to give Jon and AC some form of protection to recieve their appropriate fees for their continual updates and working and de-bugging the program. Such work needs to be respected professionally and economically, but there needs to be a compromise balance to protect the end providers of healthcare who must maintain records for their patients for years after last office visit to be able to continue using the program so as to be able to enable them to have protected access to the records that they created with and in the program.
Again I'm not sure I'm the best person to write this, and would apperciate a group think on this one. Perhaps something about that entitles the user to continue using the last valid version that they properly paid for with the understanding that they are now flying without a net after their last annual payment is up. Like most other software vendors if you want back in, then at some point you need to pay the admission fee. This would seem like a fair balance to protect the interests of AC to their needed fee revenue stream that allows them to continue to function and take care of all of us, while still protecting providers and patients and their access to the medical records created in AC the program.
Thoughts and and input here??? Good work folks.
Paul and Nancy
I must also say the I think I am glad to see that the service agreement is no longer part of the EULA as really to a large extent they are quite separate. But that being said, then just what are we paying for when we pay our annual fees? Are the two concepts of Updates and tech support, Guardian Angel, going to be two separate sets of fees and contracts? And if so then I'm sure I speak for most of us that then obviously we would all like to take a look at this new sevice contract and it's fee structure to see if it fits our needs. Or is Guardian Angel and tech support going the wayside altogether?
On that idea as I suggested a long time ago, perhaps Jon could create a multi-tiered support structure so that highly computer literate folks like Vinny let's say could purchase a minimal base package while more average type users like ourselves could take advantage of a higher quality level of support, all while properly compensating Jon and AC for these various levels of users and support.
