Re: German CD-ROM (Was: Re: Addressing home-made adapter cards)

[joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn)]

I feel a need to amplify on my statements concering copyrights and
shareware and re-distribution...

My previous messages upheld and supported the rights of a
shareware author to limit re-distribution of their shareware.
Those previous comments were based totally on the legal aspects of
re-distribution of copyrighted software.

As stated previously, it is a shareware author's legal right to
approve or deny re-distribution rights to anyone they want.

That brings up the more pressing question of why a shareware
author would want to deny someone from re-distributing their
software. After all, most shareware authors understand that the
more widely their shareware is distributed, the more likely it is
that they will receive shareware fees.

So, the truth of the matter is that by adding a comment to a
copyright notice such as "give freely, but do not charge" is
counter-productive. After all, user groups charge for disks, and
when software is uploaded to a commercial online service such as
CompuServe or GEnie, those online services make money. Yet,
probably one of the easiest ways these days to distribute Apple II
shareware is to upload it to GEnie. One upload, and within 2-3
days, it's spread around the globe.

So, why would a shareware author want to limit re-distribution?