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Signed Agreement

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Stealthy

Guest
Hi, nine months ago i signed a "Student Mobile Computing Program Agreement" with Remington College that bound me to using their issued laptop and not my own.

I want to be able to use my laptop (Dell Inspiron 5000e, 750Mhz P3 CPU) instead of their crappy IBM A21E ThinkPad(celeron 600 CPU) that was issued to me.

I was forced to use their laptop because they would not take the cost of the laptop($6,000) out of my tuition bill ($22,800) even if I had refused their issued laptop.

Now the head of their computer department is harassing me to stop using my beautiful, powerful with a nice big LCD screen Dell laptop. He wants me to use the issued laptop. As a programmer, i like the big screen of Dell laptop, which makes me much more productive instead of using the

He gave me a copy of the signed agreement, which he happily highlighted the clause that reads "The student-issued ThinkPad is a necessary part of the learning experience of the College and no other laptop, notebook or ThinkPad may be used at the College."

I was just wondering about the legality of a clause like that concerning a student's education. What are my rights in this matter? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

P.S. All they want to do is keep students from using laptops that are much cheaper and much more powerful in fear that other students might want to get their own instead of paying the hefty $6000 for a $1500 computer (price listed on the IBM website, Jan 2001). The students also don't get to keep any software once they graduate since the licenses for those software are those of Remington's. So we get a $1500 with NO LICENSES to "CERTAIN SOFTWARE" upon graduation. As i see it, since the students will not be getting an "image" cd for reinstallation nor will they get individual cds of any software contained on the issued laptop, they have no means to get their computer (with all the programs) back up and running in an event that the computer programs become corrupt or the whole computer becomes unbootable.
 


JETX

Senior Member
Any 'rights' that you might have had were waived when you signed the agreement that you would use THAT computer at THAT school.

The included statement "The student-issued ThinkPad is a necessary part of the learning experience of the College and no other laptop, notebook or ThinkPad may be used at the College" is pretty specific, and by using ANY other laptop, you are breaching your agreement.
 
S

Stealthy

Guest
So if a school does not sanction a certain book that i feel would be beneficial to my persuit of an education, I am not allowed to bring that book to class or read it in class?
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
My response:

No. You're mixing apples and oranges.

Your school has a contract with a computer supplier. As part of that contract, all computers are exactly the same, including programs. This way, when the professor says to hit certain key functions, everyone will be doing the same thing. But, that's the small part. The larger picture is the programs. The programs are pre-loaded by the company. These are the computers that run and are set up in a certain fashion for "your learning experience." Further, the company doesn't want to deal with the varying "repair" requirements of different computers and different set-ups of those different computers. Each computer is the same, and function exactly the same way. When a hard drive fails, the company pulls a new one off the shelf that works with that brand of computer, and doesn't want to go hunting for parts for various other computers. This is all called "synergy".

However, I am troubled by the fact that your school is selling you an education on the one hand, and in order for you to "buy" that education, you must also "buy" that computer. That's called a "tie-in" sale which, in most States, is illegal; e.g., you can't get one product or service without being required to buy another product or service.

I would call my States' Attorney General's office to describe your situation to them, and to determine whether or not your State would consider this "transaction" to be an illegal "tie-in" sale.

Good luck to you.

IAAL
 
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