Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:14797 comp.sys.misc:1211 comp.sys.ibm.pc:12247 comp.sys.mac:13027 comp.sys.atari.st:7725 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!tekig!tekig4!bradn From: bradn@tekig4.TEK.COM (Bradford Needham) 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: <2506@tekig4.TEK.COM> Date: 16 Feb 88 21:15:54 GMT References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl> <39450@sun.uucp> <121@ritcv.UUCP> <1012@sask.UUCP> <204@ritcv.UUCP> Reply-To: bradn@tekig4.UUCP Followup-To: comp.sys.misc Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 81 Summary: shareware is dead In article <204@ritcv.UUCP> jal3495@ritcv.UUCP (Jeff Leyser) writes: >My complaint with this program is, I think, made clear. This util. is >designed to be a quicker and easier way of managing a hard disk. Placing >pauses of that length (10 seconds is LONG time), defeats that purpose. It's >much like marketing a shareware wordprocesor, but you can only use the >'save' function if you send me $20 bucks. This note prompts me to write a couple of comments. Please followup to comp.sys.misc only -- I'm sure the folks in the other comp... groups are just as tired of this discussion as us in comp.sys.mac. I don't see the problem with marketing a shareware wordprocessor that doesn't have the "Save" feature. It's a free market and people can offer whatever they like for whatever price they like. If you don't like a particular product offering, send a letter to the seller, saying what you think. For example, I have sent several letters to Electronic Arts about their Mac-crippling copy-protection scheme. The last letter I sent them explains that I recently bought Studio Session (from a competitor) rather than their Delux Music Construction Set because of their refusal to remove their incompatibility-causing copy-protection. This feedback method is called "Voting with your wallet", and is very effective. A lot of postings in this discussion seem to be trying to pin particular definitions on the terms "Shareware", "Freeware", "Demoware", and others, yet I've never seen commonly-accepted definitions for these words. How do you feel about these: "DemoWare" - a demonstration version of a program. This version lacks certain important features (e.g., "Save") or it has a limited life (e.g., after June, 1988 it fails to work anymore). If you send the money in, you get a complete version of the program. "ShareWare" - a complete version of a program. No missing features, no booby-traps. If you send in the money, you get recorded as a licensed user. This license may provide you with extra stuff (e.g., updates or manuals) but it doesn't give you anything that makes your initial copy of the program work any better. "ThugWare" - a program that deliberately attempts to penalize the user for using the program, in a mistaken attempt to punish software pirates. E.g., a program that erases your disk and prints "The wages of sin is death". It's my opinion that anyone who builds such software is asking for a punitive-damages suit. "Free" - a program that you can copy and use without sending anyone any money. This category includes both copyrighted-but-free programs and public-domain programs. A Free program never asks for money. "Public Domain" - Let's use this term with its legally-correct meaning: public intellectual property. In the USA, anyone can do anything they want to a public domain program. >...I will be registering my copy of ZCOMM shortly.... It looks like this user is another of the crowds of "the check's in the mail" shareware users. No wonder nobody is making money on shareware. Shareware would be a great idea in the best of all possible worlds, but the concept has been so degraded by every weekend programmer who thinks he can get a few bucks for his 2-hour hatchet job and by every toothless legalistic message that says "send $15 or you'll hate yourself and I'll come after you with my lawyers" and by all the two-faced users who say "this program is great, but I just don't have the money right now" that shareware's day has come and gone. Expect to see nothing but Free, DemoWare, and ThugWare in the future. By the way, is anybody paying taxes on their shareware spoils, or is this all black-market money? Brad Needham bradn@tekig4.TEK.COM ------------ DISCLAIMER: The opinions above are the result of a bad day. Take them with a grain of salt. The author is at this moment regretting ever posting to the net.