---------------------------------------------------------------- THE SHAREWARE USERS TUTORIAL (c) 1990-1992 Seattle Scientific Photography ---------------------------------------------------------------- Within any chapter or section of this tutorial, press F1 key for help screen. You can control colors, turn sound on/off, search through the tutorial for a title or phrase, print entire chapters on your printer and more! Press F1 for Help. A reminder line appears at the BOTTOM of the screen to assist you. You may read or print a registration/order form on your printer from the main menu. If you lack a printer or have difficulties printing the order form, use a plain sheet of paper and include your name, address and description similar to the order form you can view on the screen. Technical questions, comment or suggestion? Jot a note and include with your order. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SHAREWARE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, FREEWARE AND COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE ---------------------------------------------------------------- SHAREWARE is software which has been prepared by a variety of individuals and companies. The concept governing shareware is that you "try before you buy." Shareware is above all a unique marketing experiment which operates on the "honor system." In practice, shareware is frequently of the same quality as commercial software. However, it uses a different, and somewhat less expensive method of marketing which involves letting others freely copy, use and distribute the shareware. What you receive from your friend at work, computer club, commercial shareware disk distributor or BBS modem system is a "disk evaluation copy" which you may use, copy and above all TRY. Documentation and instructions for program use are usually contained within special text files on the same disk as the program and sometimes take a little detective work to locate. Formal printed documentation and instruction books may also be available from the author. If you like what you find and use the program consistently - many shareware authors suggest 30 days, but this is not a firm rule - then you are expected to register the shareware by submitting a fee usually by mail to the author which frequently brings additional benefits sent back to you by the author of the shareware. Above all, it is legal to copy, distribute and USE shareware. What do you do if you don't care for the software? No need to return it or pay further for it. Erase the disk or give it to a friend. Only you are keeping track - an honor system in the truest sense. Try before you buy and affordable prices are the hallmark of shareware! Computers improve the world, shareware improves computers and registration is what improves and motivates shareware programmers who are called "authors" in the trade. If you do not submit a registration fee AT LEAST send a postcard with your thoughts on why improvement is needed. You just might NEED and USE the revised version which is produced due to your funding or critique. Either way, feedback is essential to the shareware process! The registration fee requested by the author is a matter of good conscience since shareware registration fees are paid by users directly to the author "on the honor system." Paying an honest registration fee frequently means you will receive additional disks for the program or further instruction documents, bonus items or other "inducements" directly from the author. Registration is more than this though: on a human scale your registration fee is supporting a small company or individual who shows you how to use and understand a computer. A programmer is a craftsman whose tools are logic and considerable creativity. Your registration check is a special bond which allows this quiet "honor system" of submitting your registration fee for a programming job well done to motivate creative programmers to produce some rather astonishing products! The best way to summarize is this: you are not registering a product, you are helping a person or small company do something which improves how man uses the computer, most important tool of this century. Paying a registration fee to the author of the program rewards technical craftsmanship for providing creative computer solutions at unbelievably low cost. Good programmers are rare creatures - a small registration check goes a long way and means a lot to a small shareware author! PUBLIC DOMAIN software is a second type of computer software which is NOT copyrighted and has no other legal restrictions as to use by the general public. The author may or may not be identified. Most public domain programs result from the efforts of a programmer who designs a small piece of software for personal use. The author may not decide to invest additional time in developing and marketing the software due to lack of market knowledge or lack time and funds to effectively develop it into a larger commercial or shareware package. For these and other reasons, the author does not copyright the software and allows it to be copied, used or even incorporated into other software packages since it is part of the public domain available for the common good. FREEWARE is related to BUT NOT the same as public domain software. Freeware requires no registration fee or reimbursement for use by the public but the copyright is RETAINED BY THE AUTHOR who notes a copyright restriction within the body or documentation of the software. A reason for this subtle difference is that the author may, at a future date, wish to reclaim all or part of the software or modify and reissue the software as shareware or commercial software. The copyright continues the unique claim of the author to the product. COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE is computer software provided by a company or individual which is generally marketed via retail, wholesale or other commercial means but does not use or promote a registration fee concept, a "try before you buy" concept, and does not use or promote sharing copies of the program among individuals or other enterprises. The user is expected to purchase the right to use the package BEFORE being allowed to use the software extensively. Note that either purchase or registration of any software package does not mean you own the package, merely THE RIGHT AND LICENSE TO USE IT. The author or company which produced it owns the software programming code and is granting you a LICENSE to use it in exchange for a fee or other compensation. In essence you do not buy or own software, you merely license its use. The author owns it.