Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Copying DOS 3.3 Message-ID: <8905222339.aa15242@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 23 May 89 04:27:50 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 31 >wondering if Apple allows people who write shareware to copy DOS 3.3 so >that their work has an operating system. Please respond on the net so that >those who are interested can find out. Thanx, in advance. Apple has a legitimate interest in preserving their rights to DOS 3.3. In order to do so, they have to have some sort of legal agreement with those who distribute the operating system. Originally Apple spent most of their energy hiring programmers and engineers. By the time the lawyers got around to worrying about copying DOS 3.3 with disks, every user group in Christendom was willy-nilly distributing HUGE quantities of public domain software on disks which also contained DOS 3.3. Apple's solution is to license DOS 3.3 at REALLY INEXPENSIVE terms -- something like $75 for a lifetime license. So, if you really want to distribute disks with DOS 3.3 on them, there's very little excuse not to sign a license aggreement with Apple. Of course, most users who know enough to know what shareware is also know how to copy a program onto a disk which has DOS 3.3 on it (I'm a licensed user of Diversi-DOS myself). The question leads to the curious prospect of a shareware author muttering about the "pirates" while simultaneously pirating Apple's operating system :-O Murph Sewall Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90] Prof. of Marketing Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET] U of Connecticut {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP] (203) 486-5246 [FAX] (203) 486-2489 [PHONE] 41 49N 72 15W [ICBM] -+- I don't speak for my employer, though I frequently wish that I could (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)