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From: rschmidt@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: PKZIP license (FAQ?)
Summary: Legalities
Keywords: PKZIP shareware etc
Message-ID: <1991May15.183441.23715@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 15 May 91 18:34:41 GMT
References: <1991May13.180456.7220@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> <1991May13.214634.18373@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991May14.161702.19360@mccc.edu>
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Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 42

I wrote:
>=In any case, yes, your school must register to be legal.i
>
Pete Holsberg writes:
>
>I think that it has been established (although not tested in the
>courts) that not paying for or registering shareware is *not* illegal. 
>It may be "cheating" but ...
>

Let's consider this a moment, Pete.  The trial use of software is no 
different than the trial acceptance of a book.  You examine the book,
determine its suitability to your needs, and then you either return the
book or pay for it at the end of the trial period.  It would certainly
be illegal to retain the book without paying for it.

The shareware idea is the same concept:  You obtain a copy of the
software and try it.  You decide to continue using it.  If you do not
pay for the continued use, you most certainly are guilty of theft.  If
this has not been tried in court, it is because of the problem of tracking
down the thieves.  It is difficult to tell who is or is not using the
software.  Thus, the shareware system relies on a certain degree of
trust.  Just because it is difficult to locate perpetrators does not
make the theft legal, just hard to enforce.  This problem is not unique
to shareware.  Just think of the huge number of pirated copies of
popular commercial software in use.  Microsoft will probably confirm
that the #1 pirated software package is MS/PC DOS.  Can Windows be far
behind?

And, if it hasn't been tried in court, then it has *not* been
established.

We spend a lot of time and money in our schools teaching our business
students about ethics and law.  It just seems sad that there are still
so many that would split hairs and feel justified in their act of
dishonesty simply because no one will bother to prosecute them.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy Schmidt                 |  #include <disclaimer.h>     
Indiana University          |  /* They are _my_ thoughts, and you can't
Graduate School of Business |     have them, so there!  */