Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!stan!imp From: imp@Solbourne.COM (Warner Losh) Subject: Re: Cracking games Message-ID: <1991Mar19.172138.4340@Solbourne.COM> Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO References: <27442@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <31600014@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.> <1991Mar18.223533.646@welch.jhu.edu> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1991 17:21:38 GMT >It's attitudes like these that cause me, "just" a shareware author, >irritation at pirates like you. "Unregistered shareware", when used >beyond the test period *** SOAP BOX ON *** By distributing your software via shareware, you are accepting the risk that people will not pay you for programs they really use. You of all people should know that. Could it be that this shareware that he has isn't worth registering? I have several programs that I have used a couple of times that weren't even worth the disk space to keep them, much less send in the "fee" that the license agreement (very one sided) stated that I must send in before I used the program. Face it. With shareware, you will get maybe 1 in 50 people that are really using your program to send you money for it. It is the risk you take for "giving it away" in the user's eyes. I know that you aren't really giving it away, but when a person downloads something for free, they tend to assume, rightly or wrongly, that the program itself is free. So lighten up on this guy. All shareware writer's know this risk when they release their products. They all know that there will be lots of people out there who don't register their copies of the program. They also know that some people will, and that is how they make their money. Anybody have any idea how many unregistered, heavily used PKZIP copies are floating around????? *** SOAP BOX OFF *** None of this says that using shareware w/o registering it is Right, or Moral, or anything like that. It happens. It shouldn't. Everybody should always pay for everything they use. But in reality, if you don't get the money up front from some people, you don't get the money from them at all. Warner P.S. As a shareware author, I don't want lots of people to copy my program and not pay me for it. However, that's a risk I knew I was taking when I desided that my program wasn't worth selling in more "traditional" channels. -- Warner Losh imp@Solbourne.COM We sing about Beauty and we sing about Truth at $10,000 a show.