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Monster Media 1994 #1
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BUSINESS
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VNDINF10.ZIP
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AUTHOR.TXT
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1994-02-28
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5KB
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96 lines
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ VENDINFO -- What's in It for the AUTHOR? │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Anything that improves the quality and efficiency of communication
from authors to distributors is beneficial to both. VENDINFO
provides many features that assist with this:
o VENDINFO provides a very comprehensive coverage of the
information an author might want to communicate to
distributors. The 750 fields of information in a VENDINFO
data record cover the whole range of relevant topics,
including product description; required platform; contact
information for author, ordering, and support; contact
information for other distributors of registered version;
prices and registration benefits; and detailed distribution
policy, both in general and for each of 13 distribution
channels.
o The structuredness of the VENDINFO record -- and the editor
used to create it -- help the author avoid oversights.
o The editor's extensive help system provides a veritable
"short course" on the industry for the relatively
inexperienced author.
o Because the VendEdit editor has been designed to support the
import of information files from your regional distributors,
you will be able to easily include full and current contact
information for them, as well as information about accepted
forms of payment, and services provided.
o Easy access to the descriptive information in the VENDINFO
file increases the chance that your own preferred descriptions
will be used in BBS databases, vendor catalogs, etc. This
likelihood will become even greater as BBSes and BBS utilities
begin to provide internal support for the extraction of this
information. Some 30 manufacturers of BBS and related
software have already committed to support VENDINFO, including
PCBOARD, Wildcat!, Major BBS, Searchlight BBS, and TBBS.
o The ease with which distributors can test your distribution
policy, and the ease with which illegal distribution can be
detected, will put "teeth" into your distribution policies for
the first time. No distributor will reasonably be able to
claim that "It's just too much work to examine the
distribution policies on all those products."
o Just to make the point about "teeth" crystal clear, imagine
running a batch file that detects all "illegally distributed"
packages on an entire "pirate" CD-ROM, and automatically
creates and prints form letters inviting the authors to
participate in a class-action suit. The VENDINFO system will
make this technically possible, for anyone so inclined.
o At the author's option, it will soon be possible to "brand"
your executables with a brief VENDINFO record containing
product identification and author contact information, along
with your complete distribution policy. This will insure
that your package can be tested for violation of its
distribution policy even if the VENDINFO.DIZ file has been
removed. The VENDINFO "branding record" can be inside
your own CRC envelope, and thus protected from modification
or removal. Furthermore, if you choose, you will be able
to protect the specific VENDINFO file from within the
executable, both by storing a verifiable CRC-like value
calculated from the file, and even by doing a run-time
test for its presence, if desired.
o The VENDINFO Product Registry will provide visibility of your
products to distributors, journalists, and even individual
users who might not otherwise have discovered them. It will
also provide an easy way to distribute screenshots, and perhaps
other artifacts related to your products. It even provides a
possibility for you to realize a small additional income, by
sharing in the fees paid by distributors to use this service.
o The VENDINFO record actually SAVES space in the distribution
package, because it's almost always smaller than the
VENDOR.DOC, SYSOP.DOC, READ_ME.DOC, and other files it
replaces.
o The free VendView viewer will soon give users an ability to
access relevant information about your product from a pleasing,
menu-driven viewer. It will even allow individual users to
test your product for "legality" of distribution, and for
changes not allowed by your distribution policy. This will not
only increase user confidence, but may even result in users
putting pressure on distributors who violate authors'
distribution policies.