Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!seismo!gatech!akgua!usl!elg From: elg@usl.UUCP (Eric Lee Green) Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: Profiteering from Shareware/Freeware? Message-ID: <798@usl.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Jul-86 16:37:28 EDT Article-I.D.: usl.798 Posted: Thu Jul 3 16:37:28 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Jul-86 04:37:27 EDT References: <1692@brl-smoke.ARPA> Reply-To: elg@usl.UUCP (Eric Lee Green) Organization: USL, Lafayette, LA Lines: 38 In article <1692@brl-smoke.ARPA> WANCHO@SIMTEL20.arpa writes: >The concept of "shareware" is a sore subject with me. If it weren't >for the network of bulletin boards, and user groups with an existing >distribution mechanism, and a dearth of quality software for MS/PCDOS, >shareware would have been stillborn. > I really see no problem here. Putting a notice on the software that says "Copyright by Joe Bloe, all are free to copy and distribute as they please, for a small donation you can get a printed manual, updates, and technical support" doesn't seem obnoxious. Anybody can use the program all they want, if people need help with the program, want bugs fixed, or whatever, Joe Bloe is sitting at home instead of working down at the Burger Barf to pay the rent. I can see where professional computer programmers don't like seeing Joe Bloe intruding on their territory ("He ought to let us make our $500/copy for FooBar-1-2-3 instead of writing a useful program that people like so much they're willing to donate money to him"). But, most people don't program professionally for a living (in fact, some people actually pay to program -- like me), and couldn't afford to support the program if nobody paid them for that support. It's real easy for a professional programmer making $30,000/year to say "Freeware is bad, I give all my stuff away". Of course, you've got your bad apples, who put notices on their software that say "Copyright by B.B. Wolf, send me $500 if you use this program", but we all know what to do about notices like that... strangely enough, such things only happen in the IBM PC world, nowhere else (if an Apple hacker put such a notice on his software, he'd be laughed out of town). -- --------Mandatory quote:------------ "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." -- Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards before 1984 governor's race. ------------------------------------ Eric Green {akgua,ut-sally}!usl!elg (Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509)