AT&T dealer offers to illegally copy and sell 7300 software

[Vijay Vaidyanathan]

Amazing. I wouldnt have believed this if it hadnt hapenned to me!

This is kind of long, but do read it.

I called AT&T this morning to ask about buying the Development System
for the 7300 (I called the 800 Number). They gave me the name and address
of their "Authorized Reseller in the area", whom I called. The call
was answered by a lady who said that this was "the residence", and
gave me another number to call. I did.

I was told that I'd have to wait to be called back, and sure enough
I got a call in about 20 minutes. The call went something like this:

ME > I'd like to know how much the Dev. Sys for the 7300 costs
HIM> Well, there are hardly any of those left. AT&T stopped
     supporting that over a year ago, you know. They are impossible
     to find any more. They used to cost over $500 when you could
     get them!
ME > So, do you have any ?
HIM> I happen to have .... How much Disk space you got ?
ME > 20 Meg.
HIM> Oh NO! You've got a problem. Thats hardly any space. You cant put
     put the Dev. System on that much space ... You need a 3B1 or 3B2.
     Do you want to upgrade to one of those ? I've got an extra one
     that I dont use any more.
ME > No, I'm sorry I dont want one.
HIM> Well, I can give you the Dev. Sys, but there's no documentation.
ME > No documentation ??
HIM> Also, I wont give you the original floppies. I can just load the
     system on your Hard disk for you ... and no documentation.
     It will cost you a Hundred bucks. The original would have cost you
     more than Five hundred.
ME > No thanks ... I can get it for free, if I wanted to get it that way.
HIM> Well, AT&T wont support that software no matter where you get it from,
     so you're better of getting it this way!
ME > Thanks, but no. 
        {I hang up}

Now, (if you've read through all this), my question is, how much of
what the guytold me is (1) Legal
                        (2) Accurate in terms of support from AT&T

If he's right and AT&T doesnt sell the stuff anymore, where can I buy it
from ... I'm certain his solution to my problem is a rip off.

PLease. I MUST get rid of /bin/ua and the lousy windows that let *any*
person who has access to the Unix Command line, also create and delete
users. (Who on *earth* thought of That!!!!!!! Wow !!)

I would also like to know if there is any particular person at AT&T
whom I can call to tell them about their "authorised Resellers".
Of course, I have no real proof that the conversation ever took place 
(I should have recorded it!).

Help!

- Vijay
-------
vijay at cssun.albany.edu
vijay at albanycs.albany.edu
-------