Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!manes
From: manes@marob.MASA.COM (Steve Manes)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Shareware liscenses
Message-ID: <606@marob.MASA.COM>
Date: 31 Mar 89 18:03:34 GMT
References: <5179@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Organization: ESCC  New York City
Lines: 25

From article <5179@cbnews.ATT.COM>, by cbema!las@cbnews.ATT.COM (cbema!las):
> O.K.  Publish your fabulous XYZZY program as shareware.  Then locate some
> individual who has not paid the mandatory registration fee (oh what the heck,
> make a list of everyone you can find).  Now go to your nearby U.S. Attorney
> and demand that they be prosecuted.  You may be 1) laughed at, 2) receive
> an explanation about the necessity of measuring their annual budget against
> the "importance" of the crime, 3) given some kind of run-around, or 4)
> something else.  What you will surely not get is the action you request.

Of course not but that's irrelevant to what we were addressing.  You
said, in so many words, that a user who fails to read the license and
warranty is free to legally assume whatever rights he wants concerning
the software.  That is clearly not the case.  A copyright is a copyright.
The mode of distribution doesn't impeach the author's rights.  That can
only be done explicitly by the author.

It's doubtful that a rich commercial software company would go after a
lone pirate either.  However, ASP >has< taken Shareware vendors who've
violated member copyrights to court.  Most recently, ASP stomped a
distributor in Holland who intentionally misrepresented Shareware as
public domain.
-- 
Steve Manes            Roxy Recorders, Inc.             Magpie-HQ BBS
UUCP : {rutgers|cmcl2}!hombre!magpie!manes              (212)420-0527
Smail: manes@MASA.COM