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From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: enforcement of Sharewar
Message-ID: <348@sas.UUCP>
Date: 22 Feb 88 18:44:15 GMT
References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl> <39450@sun.uucp> <121@ritcv.UUCP> <1012@sask.UUCP> <204@ritcv.UUCP> <8503@sunybcs.UUCP> <363@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Reply-To: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc Cary, NC
Lines: 48

Just last week, I sent in about $200 for various and sundry shareware programs.
However, I had been using many of them for an entire *year* (since I got my 
Amiga) before I got around to it.  This is a general problem: even the best-
intentioned people don't have any motivation to pay for shareware soon.  Had
I stopped using my Amiga---or even some of the software---before the year was
out, the authors would never have been paid for their efforts.

For example, I stopped using vdk: some time ago.  I went commercial in the
meantime, and John Toebes went around hitting up on everybody for $10, but had
that not occured, I never would have paid for it even though I used it for six
months.  (vdk:, by allowing the ramdisk to survive warm boots also insures 
that memory fragmentation survives warm boots, in case you wanna know why I
stopped using it.)

Also, I fail to distinguish between shareware and freeware.  Except for one
group of simple programs which specifically stated that the author wanted
no money for her efforts, I sent in contributions according to how useful I
found them to be regardless of the pleas that the authors made.

If people wish to be paid for their efforts, they need to do something to 
motivate people to pay within a reasonable period of time.  For example,
the program might start up with an informative HELP panel as shipped.  
This would serve two purposes:
1.  For people who are new to the product, it tells them how to use it.
2.  For people who have been using it for a long time, it gets annoying.

When the users register, they are given an incantation to get rid of the
automatic HELP on startup.  This has the beauty that it is actually 
*helpful* for people who are starting to use it, but it still motivates
people to pay before it gets too old.

The other possibility is to only print the HELP if some companion file does
not exist, and then create it.  If you notice that the companion-file is
more than, say, 45 days old, you could then start asking for people to
please send in contributions.  Of course this can be easily defeated, but
the point is to spur honest people to getting around to it, not to keep 
dishonest people from taking it.

Just one thing:  If it is shareware (and you are going to do any of these
things) rather than freeware, you *MUST* make this clear in any summaries
on BBS's, at the top of the README file, in net communication, &c.  It is
not fair to pull such tactics on unsuspecting users.  If you do, they will
rightly resent you and feel that you are not being honest, making them less
likely to pay you.
-- 
                                                         --Brian.
(Brian T. Schellenberger)				 ...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts

DISCLAIMER:  Whereas Brian Schellenberger (hereinafter "the party of the first