Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!jcc
From: jcc@ut-emx.UUCP (Chris Cooley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: StuffIt 1.5 vs. 1.40B
Message-ID: <5568@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 30 Aug 88 18:50:16 GMT
References: <53@bridge2.UUCP> <24684@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <394@manta.NOSC.MIL>
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 36

In article <394@manta.NOSC.MIL>, lulue@manta.NOSC.MIL (Dan Lulue ) writes:
> .... I would like to include some useful
> shareware utilities on the starter diskettes we hand out to our users,
> but there is no way to compensate the authors every time we hand one
> out.

There's no need to be worried about compensating the authors.  As I see it,
passing out the disks is like having the program available for download on
a bulletin board system.  The responsibility of adhering to the shareware
ethic is up to the end user.  Shareware wouldn't have gotten as far as it
has (however far that may be) if the distributors (sysops, CompuServe,
etc.) were responsible for making sure the "pay or erase it" clause
was followed.  Simply put, they would refuse to distribute it.

You may want to make it doubly obvious by separating the shareware form
the freeware, and maybe even a "read.me"-type text file stating in some
general form the shareware credo.  I've seen this done before and it's
not really all that obnoxious.  In fact, it adds a bit of credibility
to the authors' request by showing the user that the request isn't 
simple begging or a flat-out joke.

> 
> Dan.

					--chris


Disclaimer:  I don't write shareware code (yet?), but I've been supporting
shareware for over 7 years.


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