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Path: utzoo!utcsri!petera
From: petera@utcsri.UUCP (Smith)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Profiteering from Shareware/Freeware?
Message-ID: <3022@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jun-86 16:20:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.3022
Posted: Wed Jun 25 16:20:48 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Jun-86 16:26:53 EDT
References: <1247@brl-smoke.ARPA>, <3005@utcsri.UUCP> <791@houxu.UUCP>
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 20


From postnews Wed Jun 25 16:16:39 1986
> Granted, this software is also available on bulletin board systems, but for
> some people, the convenience of ordering vs randomly searching through a
> bulletin board is worth the small price.

    Absolutely true. The difference comes when that $6 disk suddenly costs
$20 and the ad for the company says "some ShareWare programs ask for a
contribution for further developement, you do not have to pay this". In
other words they are advising the buyer that he does not need to support
the ShareWare principle as long as he pays the $20. Everybody suffers
when this happens because the authors of these programs will stop making
contributions to the world of ShareWare and public domain. This is a real
shame because the ShareWare principle is a good one. Pay for it if it
is useful instead of give us $500 now and go away and never bother us 
again. As I said before, I doubt that there is a legal leg to stand on
in the ShareWare/Public Domain software profiteering racket. Sigh!

 Peter Ashwood-Smith