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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!chuq
From: chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.news,net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Cleaning up net.sources.mac
Message-ID: <2912@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 14:47:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2912
Posted: Mon Oct 21 14:47:32 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Oct-85 06:07:28 EDT
References: <1134@sdcsvax.UUCP> <10674@ucbvax.ARPA> <1564@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Sun Micro -- NFS Consulting Group
Lines: 45
Xref: watmath net.news:4120 net.micro.mac:3112
Summary: 

In article <1564@uwmacc.UUCP> rick@maccunix.UUCP (Rick Keir) writes:
>Joel Grey is objecting to the posting of "shareware" on the net.
>He goes on to assert various things about it probably not being 
>good enough to be sold commercially, which indicate a serious
>lack of understanding of the realities of micro software avail-
>ability, and objects to developers being allowed to market their
>stuff thru the net.

I think you'll find that most of the shareware stuff is definitely posted
by third parties. A good percentage of it comes OFF of ARPA and the
info-mac archive, so I'm not at all sure that the ARPA problem is a real
one -- ARPA is already passing around and archiving that stuff in an
arganized form.

I don't see any problem, really -- that stuff is nothing more than a public
domoain program with a "I you like this, please let me know..." addition.
If the people who use it like it, they pay for it. If not, they don't. In
either setup there are no additional costs to the site except transfer, and
the reality is that a good percentage of that stuff wouldn't exist, much to
the dismay of the interested parties (of which I'm one...).

One point: Assuming you 'outlaw' shareware, how do you plan on enforcing
it? Rules and regulations are fine, but there has to be a way of dealing
with the people who don't know the rule or won't pay attention to it. I
think that an arbitrary rule of this sort will simply create more problems
than it solves...

Other point: I haven't annouced this previously, but I've worked out a deal
(thanks a LOT to apple!lsr) with Apple so that stuff that is uploaded to
CompuServe will also be sent to me to be uploaded for posting to the net
and shipment to the info-mac archives. There are still some minor details
to be worked out, but it is my feeling that if 'shareware' is outlawed it
would also apply to this, and we'll be cutting the many Mac users and
developers out there from some very important and USEFUL resources and
information. 

I don't know about you, but as long as the volume in places like net.flame
and net.religion stays as high as it is, I don't see why we're bothering with
groups like net.*.mac where the noise leve is relatively low...

-- 
:From the Crystal Caves of Avalon:   Chuq Von Rospach 
sun!chuq@decwrl.ARPA                 {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq

Our time is past -- it is a time for men, not of magic.