Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpesoc1!hpindda!hardin
From: hardin@hpindda.HP.COM (John Hardin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Shareware legal at work
Message-ID: <4330035@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: 19 Feb 88 18:08:46 GMT
References: <4330033@hpindda.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 48

>I put a package which I restrict from comercial use.... and given the
>proper registration from orginizations like yours I would happily send
>along an official document sactioning it use. I don't see this as a
>barrier to the use of software like this... you just need to get hold of
>the package author. I think you will find most are happy to set you up.
>
>			Daniel Lawrence		
>----------

The above advice is certainly sound and I have, indeed, pursued some
shareware and PD software to this extent.  One of my insprirations
for the original posting, however, was a note from a shareware
author complaining that payback on shareware was poor.  The above
advice puts the burdon on me, the customer.  I must contact each
package author myself.  I'm not likely to do this for any but
the most mouth-watering packages.  After all, I just use the PC
as a workstation to aid my productivity in doing my own work.  I 
can't spend a lot of time setting up special arrangements with
shareware vendors.

I don't know how things are elsewhere, but the normal way I get
software at work is to: 

  1) Get informal permision from my boss for the order.
  2) Send electronic mail to our department secretary asking
     that a Purchase Order be sent to the Purchasing Dept.
     for the software.
  3) Wait for the software to arrive.

Ever tried to do anything unusual through a formal system like
this?  I get moans and groans every time I go to the secretary
with one of those upgrade offers requiring that top half of the
master disc or the title page from the manual be included with
the order.  I can order a $300 commercial package using only about
3 minutes of my time.  It can take an hour of explanations to
my secretary and Purchasing to pay for some $15 shareware, not
counting whatever time it takes me to set up special arrangments
with the author (no matter how well meaning and helpful that
author is).

The moral I am trying to convey is that if you want to distribute
shareware to the corporate environment, make it easy for your
potential customers.  Making it easy means making it look the
way commercial software looks to the the Purchasing Department.
Let me cut a P.O. and get back either a master disc or some
official looking paper with a registration number.

John Hardin
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