Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!!ergo From: ergo@.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: ?: Name for Copyrighted but FREE Software. Message-ID: <11424@.UUCP> Date: 4 Aug 90 22:50:19 GMT References: <4076@trantor.harris-atd.com> Organization: UESPA Lines: 42 In cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: >sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes: >> Perhaps there IS such a name and I simply do not know it. At one time >> I thought "Freeware" was the right term, but then I saw that term used to >> describe what is more widely known as Shareware. >What you saw was a mis-application of the term. Freeware is, I believe, >the correct term for copyrighted free software. *The* correct term? Who decided this? I really want to know, it'd make manual writing so much easier if I could just go ask some what *the* correct meaning of words like "microcode" and "baud". Anyway, I'm afraid Bob is correct. I distinctly remember reading an article on Quicksoft (in Microtimes, I think) that said that they'd registered the word "freeware" as a trademark. This was back when the shareware business was just getting going, and there wasn't any general term for it. Probably if they'd registered another name "freeware" would be the generic term now instead of "shareware". It's a pity, since once you've called the "no charge for just trying it" software "shareware", "freeware" is the logical name for "no charge at all but it's still copyrighted" software. But human language is often illogical -- and it's just as well that we all don't talk in Prolog! Still, I've noticed that Quicksoft hasn't used that word much lately. (Not at all in my copy of PCBrowse [yes, I'm gonna send in my $10 RSN].) Perhaps they can be persuaded to let "freeware" lapse, if they haven't already. In the mean time, you probably shouldn't correct people when they misuse "public domain". People think it's really obnoxious. At least they seem to when *I* do it! -- ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know!" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson