Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site amdcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!amdcad!jimb From: jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) Newsgroups: net.micro.mac Subject: Re: Is a Shareware license enforceable? Message-ID: <7737@amdcad.UUCP> Date: Mon, 23-Dec-85 18:01:37 EST Article-I.D.: amdcad.7737 Posted: Mon Dec 23 18:01:37 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Dec-85 01:19:00 EST References: <27@decwrl.UUCP> <1103@arthur.purdue.UUCP> <3087@sun.uucp> Reply-To: jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) Organization: AMD, Sunnyvale, California Lines: 48 In article <3087@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > >My personal opinion is that shareware is in the public domain, and that any >requirement to pay is a moral one, not a legal one. In other words, you get >the software and the author gets what you think its worth. The author, >regardless of the words on the software, has relinquished control of the >distribution and has published it as though it were public domain software. On >the face of it, then, it IS public domain. > Although I agree with most of what Chuq said in his article, I must take exception to his defining 'public domain' as equivalent to 'relinquishing control of distribution'. 'Shareware' to me falls in exactly the same legal position as the person in the airport who hands you a flower, expecting a donation. The law says clearly (most places) that you can accept the flower with no obligation to pay. But this should NOT be confused with 'public domain'. Public domain has a very specific legal place. If you want to you may print your own copies of the Shakespearian plays and sell them, as they are 'public domain'. You may NOT sell a VCR tape of a 49'ers game you record off TV, as these were only 'publically distributed' NOT 'public domain'. The legal concepts set up for T.V. are much closer to the Shareware question than the Encyclopedia examples we have been reading. The courts have upheld your right to record for your own non-commercial use anything which has been 'publically distributed'. At the same time they upheld the broadcaster's right to control all commercial use of the same 'publically distributed' material. How does this apply to shareware? Again, you can record it and use it, hampered only by your own morals, but you cannot sell it, and if the copyright notice prohibits you from further distribution (as with Apple's publically distributed software supplements on Compuserve) then you can't even give it away. Most shareware encourages further distribution so that isn't often a problem, but we have seen it here on Usenet ( remember Lonnie Albreck (SP?) thank you distribution of Versaterm?). -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 749-5806 Usenet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb Compuserve: 72415,1200 Bogus newsgroup: net.news: Move to end of .newsrc[yn^L]?