Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!rutgers!att!twitch!hoqax!twb
From: twb@hoqax.UUCP (T.W. Beattie)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Shareware liscenses
Message-ID: <2214@hoqax.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 89 16:19:40 GMT
Reply-To: twb@hoqax.UUCP (T.W. Beattie)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 23


The discussion of shareware liscense agreements seems to assume that people
actually read the request for payment frequently buried in a file somewhere.
I don't see how these requests can be considered legally binding since there
is no way to insure that a person has even seen them.

Many programs, PKZIP for example, are so easy to use that the documentation is
easily ignored.

Some software display a request for payment on a start-up screen.
I suspect these programs quickly fade into obscurity.
So software authors face a choice.
Make good, easy to use software that gets widely used and hope to receive
payment or
make good, difficult to use software that is either so good it generates a
payment or it is ignored.
The author in the second case also has the problem of having to respond to
payments with some way to get rid of the request for payment (patch, or
replace).
---
Tom Beattie
att!hoqaa!twb
t.w.beattie@att.com