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From: tdn@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Thomas Newton)
Newsgroups: net.news,net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Cleaning up net.sources.mac
Message-ID: <468@spice.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 20-Oct-85 00:44:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: spice.468
Posted: Sun Oct 20 00:44:19 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Oct-85 04:39:33 EDT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 33
Xref: watmath net.news:4101 net.micro.mac:3087

] > Use of the USENET for distribution of shareware constitutes `use of
] > the network for personal gain'....
]
] Perhaps we have different definitions of shareware.  I see `shareware'
] as meaning the same thing as `freeware'.  If that is so then your statement
] is not true.  If not, then I agree.

I think that 'shareware' and 'freeware' denote the same thing:  programs which
may be copied around quite freely, but which are NOT 'free': if you use one of
these programs for more than a brief evaluation period, you must send money to
the author of the program.  There's no real way to enforce this, which is one
of the reasons why some shareware promises benefits for its registered users.

If you write a shareware program and post it to the net, you are using USENET
for personal gain -- obviously you expect that at least some people will send
you money, because otherwise you could simply have put a 'copyrighted but can
be freely copied around for personal, noncommercial use' notice on it.  (Side
note:  this is NOT the same thing as 'public domain'; there's nothing to stop
anyone from taking a public domain program that you have written and selling
it for quite a bit of $$$, without even paying you two cents.)

Similarly, if you post your registered copy of a shareware program promising
that 'for every registration of a copy that has your serial number on it, you
will be given $X', you are using USENET for personal gain.  (This particular
marketing technique seems to be designed with the purpose of getting people
to post shareware on every system that they can access.)

Posting shareware which won't benefit you financially if people send in money
should be OK from the 'using USENET for personal gain' perspective.  Of course,
this pretty much means reposts of programs that have appeared elsewhere first.

                                        -- Thomas Newton
                                           Thomas.Newton@spice.cs.cmu.edu