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From: harry!hcx!netnews@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu (Netnews account)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: (none)
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Date: 30 Mar 89 03:20:03 GMT
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To: comp-binaries-ibm-pc@gatech
Path: cveg!hcx!jms
>From: jms@hcx.uucp (Michael Stanley)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc
Subject: shareware
Keywords: shareware
Message-ID: <2140@cveg.uucp>
Date: 29 Mar 89 18:04:20 GMT
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Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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It seems to me that usenet is rarely NECESSARY to any company and for that
matter to many schools and other such places which carry it.  I'm sure there
are exceptions, and I may be a little over critical in saying this.  However
I'm sure we all agree that we all are glad that our sites are part of this
network.  With this in mind, it seems that probably the majority of sites
carry usenet mostly as a bonus to their users.  Please no flames -- I'm sure
there are many wide and varried benefits from usenet access.

The point I'm trying to make is that the question we should be asking is
whether we benefit from shareware posted to the net.  While I certainly
perfer free software, I sometimes find shareware that IS worth its price to
me.  Certainly shareware by far undersells most commercial software.  I
enjoy this easy access to shareware.  I seriously doubt that the amount of
software available on usenet will substantially increase if shareware is
banned.

Of course, I would like to see some indication of the fact that something
is shareware before I go to the trouble to download it to my computer.  Maybe
a notation in the subject associated with its news letter would solve that
problem although at the expense of extra effort on the part of newsgroup
moderators.

Of course, those who pay for the network should have final say, but since
the network is carried FOR its users, I think the first question should
be what do the users want?  I think that we mostly hear the shareware
haters and not the likers speaking out.  If it turns out that most of the
users like having shareware present, THEN maybe we should ask those who
pay whether they are willing to support this.  Second, how we ask them
makes a big difference.  Asking the following two questions gives the matter
quite a different slant:

	1) Are you willing to pay for other's software advertising?

	2) Are you willing to help spread useful cheap software to
	   a large computer using community?

Now the final point is of course, what are the policies controlling
usenet.  I can't say that I'm familiar with them, but if they ban the
availability of cheap useful software, I'm not sure I agree with them.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I hope I've at least
presented things in a different light.


	Michael Stanley		...!uunet!harris.cis.ksu.edu!jms@hcx