Re: Building An Apple ][ Software Archive

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

I've always been fascinated by the concept of "Freeware."

Some years ago I was personally involved in a major multimillion-dollar
lawsuit between two large companies. One was suing the other for using their
software without permission. The defendant's main defense was that the
copyright holder had not vigorously enforced their copyright. In the end,
the case was settled out of court in a manner that was hugely in the
defendant's favor.

This experience leads me to believe that Freeware copyrights are virtually
unenforceable in a real court of law.

If anyone knows of an instance where a Freeware copyright holder has
successfully sued a violator of the Freeware terms in court, I would be very
interested in hearing about it.

Having said that, I must add that we should all respect the author's wishes
in Freeware cases. If we don't preserve this illusion of control, we risk
losing the chance to see a lot of Neat Stuff that would never be released
into the public domain. Besides that, it's simple common courtesy to do so.

Tom Zuchowski

"Frank Townsend" <ftownsen@iamdigex.net> wrote in message
news:a_py5.1491$wn2.122013@dca1-nnrp2.news.digex.net...
>
> Freeware is copyrighted material with a price of zero.  The scope of the
> "freeness" is usually indicated by the author.  In some cases distribution
> may be limited (as freeware) to a specific group.  You cannot sell
freeware
> as your own, although you could with truly PD material.
>
> It is a distinction *with* a difference. ;-))
>
> Do a websearch and look at the definitions of the three
>
> As to Paul's point, public domain is *not freeware* but is sui generis.
>
>
> "Roy and/or Janet Miller" <millers@inetnebr.com> wrote in message
> 39CA149A.C521F5A6@inetnebr.com">news:39CA149A.C521F5A6@inetnebr.com...
> > Paul Schlyter wrote:
> >
> > > Frank Townsend <ftownsen@iamdigex.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Freeware and shareware are not public domain.
> > >
> > > Shareware is not PD of course.  But you cannot generally claim
> > > "Freeware is not public domain", because some freeware is PD.
> >
> > PD means there isn't a copyright. "Freeware" is a term used to refer to
> > copyrighted software, when the copyright holder has given permission to
> > unlimited copying, but still wishes to protect their rights to the
> > algorithyms. So, your statement that "some freeware is PD" is
technically
> > false, though for the purposes of just copying and using the software,
> > there doesn't seem to be any practical difference.
> >
> > Roy
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > In particular, all public domain stuff has to be freeware, since if it
> > > isn't, you would have to pay to use it legally, and then it couldn't
> > > be public domain since restrictions on its use would then be imposed.
> > >
> > > --
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Paul Schlyter,  Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
> > > Grev Turegatan 40,  S-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
> > > e-mail:  pausch at saaf dot se   or    paul.schlyter at ausys dot se
> > > WWW:     http://hotel04.ausys.se/pausch    http://welcome.to/pausch
> >
>
>