Existing users, 
From the Skramsoft license agreement for version 1.1 of First Cut:
6.1 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with Isle of Man law. 6.2 You hereby irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice of the Isle of Man for the purpose of hearing and determining any dispute arising out of this Agreement and for the purpose of enforcement of any judgment against Skramsoft LTD’s assets. You agree that service of any writ notice or other document for the purpose of any proceedings in such court shall be duly served upon if delivered or sent by registered post to First Floor, 25 Hope Street, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 1AR. (marked for the attention of The Directors, Skramsoft LTD ).
Now the Isle of Man is a tax haven located in the Irish Sea. Here is a Google Map reference http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Isle+of+Man>. The operators of Skramsoft LLC are Ashley Revell (Sin City, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and The Chronicles of Riddick) and Jan Skarbek. Ashley Revell is a New Zealander resident in Studio City, California and Jan Skarbek lives in Melbourne, Australia. Hence I think it is unlikely that Ashley Revell or Jan Skarbek will be travelling to the Isle of Man to deal with legal matters. Agreeing to the license agreement would therefore mean in practice that you are giving up your right to legal recourse. I believe that many legal juristictions take a dim view of this kind of contractual provision, and so it may in fact be invalid. Its also interesting that the license agreement refers NOT to Skramsoft LLC, but to Skramsoft LTD. There is a Skramsoft LTD incorporated on the Isle of Man, but its directors are not Ashley Revell and Jan Skarbek. Therefore it seems that there is some ambiguity about who the parties of the license agreement actually are.
First Cut
DV cutting station
Version: 1.1
A problem with the Skramsoft Software License
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: faraday Tuesday, March 14 2006 @ 09:57 PM PST
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Have Not Tried
Recommend Product: NO
Comments
A problem with the Skramsoft Software License - gavinwj
This is actually a quite common practice and probably has more to do with taxes than anything else. An IoM company is relatively cheap to set up and run. The authors of this software are most likely the beneficial owners of the company. In order to retain the tax-exempt status, however, they cannot be directors of the company.Even the big boys set up operations like this, often in the BVI or the Channel Islands.
Monday, April 30 2007 @ 02:04 PM PDT
A problem with the Skramsoft Software License - gavinwj
I have since discovered the story behind all this. The full details are available elsewhere.Monday, April 30 2007 @ 02:17 PM PDT
A problem with the Skramsoft Software License - D_Man
I don't understand exactly what you are trying to say. The problem on 'software licencesing' is ethical philosophical (in a world without ethics nor any philosophical views about life) possibly a merry exercise for laywers. As indeed we "the users" we are always guilty ... as we have no rights but pay for updates. Software, hardware, internet, media comanies give us a licence while they say if anything goes wrong it is our fault no matter what.The american legal system opened the international trend that nobody is forcing anyone to use anything, AKA computers, and software. Therefore when we use them is at our own risk.
In reality today everything happens via computers. Not using computers means to live a rather difficult existance, not because of our choice but because others choose for us. We are forced to use computers ethically speaking the rest is legal balbla to protect corporate. is .... American as you the Americans have become lately and unfortunately. Americans, and their asisstants, who accept fabricated lies as a system to 'protect' american corporate interests around the globe.
The no responsibility of hard-soft companies are fabricated lies. No more no less.
So don't worry about the nationality of these people, how much it would cost them to fly from here to there, because it will never ever happen. As we the users have no means to claim anything at all.
If there was some kind of law protecting the users because you of serious damage from wrong coding, lack of serious world-wide software guidlines and so on, then your point about this company where they are and who they are would be somewhat meaningful. But such law so not exsist.
Example: I only have Final Cut Pro, on my original Power Book G4 maximum original Apple RAM and nothing else, not even additional extensions from Apple. When Final Cut Pro dies on me it is because the coding can't be tested as far as it should be tested, nor it can be tested under all circumstances.
This is what i see, especially because software and hardware are in fact a subscription where we have to renew wheter we like it or not ... and this is not ... decent, but decency is an old concept isn't it?
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Friday, October 27 2006 @ 11:39 AM PDT