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From: rbt@sftig.UUCP (R.Thomas)
Newsgroups: net.games,net.micro.apple,net.micro
Subject: Re: Software Piracy
Message-ID: <510@sftig.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Apr-85 11:35:18 EST
Article-I.D.: sftig.510
Posted: Mon Apr  8 11:35:18 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Apr-85 20:01:17 EST
References: <324@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA> <7171@watdaisy.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Summit, NJ
Lines: 54
Xref: watmath net.games:1802 net.micro.apple:1868 net.micro:9971

> I read in a current medical journal (my wife is a doctor) that someone
> had come up with a clever solution to piracy... They give out software for
> free, and urge that it be distributed.. The rider is that the software
> contains a header notice inviting all users to contribute to the development
> of additional software (if they liked the product) by making a charitable
> donation to the developers of the software...
> Frankly, I strongly suspect that most receivers of under-the-counter software
> would be glad to contribute to the developers but don't have any reasonable
> way of doing it.  However, most people hate parting with cash too....
> Overall, this seems like a risky venture but probably no riskier than any other
> distribution method. As said earlier I market bridge and cribbage software
> for the P.C. and my advertising is current over $1,000 for 7 small lines in
> the blue book of P.C. for 6 issues.. That alone has put me out of business
> since sales are at around 100 copies.
> If anyone likes the above copy-protection idea send mail to me..
> I don't read net.games as much as I should.... all work and no play...

To: watmath!watdaisy!ijdavis
Subject: Re: Software Piracy
In-reply-to: your article <7171@watdaisy.UUCP>

The distribution technique you describe is sometimes called 'share-ware'
and I have seen a few things distributed that way.  I like the idea very much.

Usually, the appeal for contributions includes a promise of some kind of
support for those who send in their money.  To further sweeten the pot, I have
heard of at a variation on the 'support' theme in which you send in your money
along with a copy of the diskette you are using.  The author will send it back
with the 'latest' version and a 'unique serial number' electronically encoded.
(A time and date stamp would do fine for a serial number).  The person who
owns the serial number on the disk you sent in then gets a cut from
your contribution.  Anybody you give a copy of your own diskette to who sends
in his contribution will wind up paying you a 'sales commission' just like you
paid the person who owned the copy you sent in.  The beauty of this scheme is
that pirates make *no* money from it.  They actually wind up *helping* the
authors and legitimate users to get their fair share by providing the widest
possible distribution.

The biggest problem (assuming that you have a quality product, that will sell
itself to anyone who gets to play with it for a while.) is getting a wide
enough initial distribution.

Net.sources doesn't seem to be the ideal method (very likely flames from
people on the net about commercial use of the medium, etc.)  Maybe a short
note in net.general and net.wanted describing the 'product' and offering
to send a (free) copy of your shareware for evaluation to people who mail you
a stamped self addressed floppy.

The users on other bulletin board systems may not be so touchy as the netnews folks.
Maybe the 'private' BBS's are the right way to get something like this started.


Rick Thomas
ihnp4!attunix!rbt