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

[joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn)]

If anyone is really concerned about all the legalities, I can't imagine 
that it would be too difficult to find some info on the net about the 
controversy concerning BBS-In-A-Box.

That CD collection was created by a Mac non-profit user group in Arizona. 
They basically wanted to make available a huge collection of files that 
BBS Sysops could put online. Since the disk only contained freeware and 
shareware, the user group didn't ask anyone for permission. They felt 
that because they were a non-profit organization and weren't really 
creating the CD to make money that they could just include any and all 
freeware and shareware they came upon and liked.

A single author of one small file on the disk (it may have even been a 
text file that had been uploaded somewhere) sued the non-profit user 
group. The user group had to re-call the disk and press a new one. Now, 
they always ask permission.

Since I'm not a Mac follower, that's really all I know about the story. 
Maybe someone else can find additional info.

Closer to home, I do know several very well known Apple II organizations 
(that you all know and respect) that have been threatened with 
lawsuits because they have distributed shareware without asking permission.

So, this subject really isn't something that we can debate. It's a legal 
issue, and the courts have made numerous rulings on it...always ruling in 
favor of the copyright holder.

Then again, these types of issues never come up when a shareware author 
is explicit about who may, and who may not, re-distribute their software.

Joe Kohn 
Publisher, Shareware Solutions II

  [  Shareware Solutions II: The definitive Apple II resource guide. ] 
  [      finger or e-mail joko@crl.com for subscription info         ]