Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!bu.edu!att!pacbell.com!ucsd!sdcc6!crl!jonah From: jonah@crl.ucsd.edu (Jonah Stich) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Auto-deleting shareware (was:Re: Shareware) Message-ID: <15581@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> Date: 14 Jan 91 03:15:50 GMT References: <1991Jan13.153544.12059@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <11014@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 74 Nntp-Posting-Host: crl.ucsd.edu In article <11014@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: > >In article <1991Jan13.153544.12059@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> dcw@lcs.mit.edu (David C. Whitney) writes: >>Now, I tell people, you wanna make a couple of bucks? Write a neato >>program and distribute it as shareware. You wanna make a living? Get a >>real job. > > This is going to probably cause a very big discussion, as it >is something that many many people will be against. Here's one! > I think that a good way to get people to pay for shareware programs >is to make them only work a few times.. I know that this technique is >already used sometimes, but I think it should be used a lot more.. > Instead of making a crippled demo, release the actual program, >but after a person runs it a few times, it DELETES itself.. > This will sort of cause an unending spiral, like copy protection does, >but the code to REMOVE the auto-deletion feature should be VERY well hidden >so it's not simple to just go in with a sector editor and remove it yourself. >This presents the problem of telling the user how to remove the auto-deletion >procedure, but this can somehow be gotten around.. (Note, this is basically >saying "I've not thought about it well enough to give an answer".. heh heh) > If more people get GREAT, VERY USEFUL shareware programs like this >that delete themselves, they may be more likely to pay for them! I think that this is a VERY bad idea, not only because it won't work like you want it to, but also because it's completely against the concept of Shareware. I would MUCH rather a person releases a demo of a program, with a note attached that says "If you like what you see, send $xx to xxx and I'll send you a version that saves/prints/whatever." The idea of Shareware is to a) MAKE USEFUL PROGRAMS and b) to pick up a little money on the side. Usually if b isn't happening for you, it's because you haven't done a. Most people don't like to admit it, particularly to themselves, but not everyone is a great programmer. I know from personal experience that not every program written is a great program, and that even programs that the programmer thinks are wonderful often aren't useful to lots of people. For instance, I wrote a program called the Shape Maker. It makes shape tables out of pictures. It's pretty slick, but would ONLY be of use to programmers writing games, ans most of them write their own tools for that kind of thing. Consequently I've only made $15 from that program. On the other hand, also wrote Twilight. Twilight does somethinig that a LOT of people want/need, and I'm not asking for a ton of money for it. Therefore, I've made almost $1000 from Twilight. I think that Shareware definately works, but people have to be realistic. If it was a program that took 5 minutes to write and will only appeal to 5 people, they're not going to get rich. Now, even if you want to have some form of protecting yourself from 'shareware piracy', the idea of a self deleting program is one of the worst ones. I download a program. I unpack it and see that it will delete itself after I've run it 5 times. So, I keep the archive around, on the same disk as the unpacked version, and every time it deletes itself, I just unpack it again. A tiiny hassle at worst, and I Mr. Shareware Pirate am saving myself from having to pay for it. Or, I fire up GSBug, load the program in, and in 30 mins have defeated the deletion features. Then I tell my friends how to do it, and it's as if the program weren't protected at all. Bascially, if you write Shareware, you should be doing it because you want to write programs that are useful to people. If you want to make lotza money, there are other ways to do that. Shareware protection is an oxymoron. > And it would be nice if the file takes a hell of a long time to >download, so that people don't just download a new copy every week or two! Right, people should write BIG programs, so people won't pirate them.... :) >unknown Jonah