Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!bstempleton
From: bstempleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Paying for Shareware (Was: Re: v09i070: newsclip 1.1...)
Message-ID: <34720@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 90 04:38:50 GMT
References: <14010@s.ms.uky.edu> <125816@midas.UUCP> <635@magnus.Hotline.Com>
Reply-To: bstempleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Brad Templeton)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 17

Sigh.  USENET is *NOT* public domain.  It's not even a public network.
It is *not* noncommercial.  Saying it won't make it so.  I have, and have
given, counterexamples.  Counterexamples are generally accepted as a pretty
darn good way of disproving a thesis.  So stop saying it!

Some people are missing the point of shareware over a net like USENET.
It's to benefit the *readers*, not just the poster and/or author.  If it
didn't benefit the readers, then it would not be appropriate to post.

So to suggest that sites be paid as middlemen in a software distribution
channel is silly.  It misses the point of shareware, which is that the
users get to pass it around for their benefit.  The authors would be glad
to send a disk to any customer in the mail who places an order.

The shareware concept came about to benefit the users as well as the author.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont. (519) 884-7473