Magnetic Pages Article | 1993-07-22 | 5KB | 35 lines
MPARTICLE
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[6";32;41m WHAT'S PD
[0m& The following are general&descriptions of the various types of&freely distributable software&available from PD libraries, bulletin&boards, user groups, your friends etc.&In all cases when you receive software&in this way you should check to see&what conditions have been placed on&it's release. Copies of disks of&commercial software, (software which&comes in boxes and is bought in shops,&such as computer games), are NOT&allowed to be passed on in this way -
it is illegal.& Read any documentation that comes&with the software, any messages shown&on the screen when it's run and if it&has menus or buttons check them for an&"About" or similar message. In all&cases try and work out what conditions&the author has placed on their work
and respect them.& If you are producing software&displaying a message when it is first&run stating it's type and conditions&seems the most sensible way of&ensuring people know what you want. Do&this even if it's just for the public&domain and you don't want anything&more whatsoever to do with the thing.&PD software that doesn't announce the&fact is a nuisance - how can we be&sure it's PD? And games producers, use&the mouse button for closing condition&message windows - the joystick may be
& FREEWARE is copyrighted software&that may also be freely copied and&passed on to others as with public&domain software. Restrictions however&are usually placed on it by the makers&such as no modifications being allowed&or no commercial uses without the&permission of the authors. It may also&be withdrawn from circulation by the&makers if they so wish. Always read&the documentation of freeware before
using it or passing on a copy.
Shareware...
(Try before you buy software)
& SHAREWARE is an alternative to&normal commercial software. As with&freeware and public domain software it&can be copied and passed on to others&and like freeware it is copyrighted.&Your use of it however is restricted&to testing it to see if it's what you&want. If you find you do want to use&it you are expected to pay the&shareware fee to the author. The&amount of the fee, the maker's address&and often their phone number, fax&number and electronic mail number are&usually in the documentation that came&with the shareware or in the software&itself. Payment may also get you an&upgraded version of the software known&as the registered version. These®istered versions are usually not to&be copied and passed on. Ensure that&you respect this. And always read the&documentation of any shareware before testing it or passing on a copy.
Otherwares...
& There are many other variations of
[6";32;41m WHAT'S PD
[0m&freely distributable software.&GIFTWARE - similar to shareware but&you are expected to send the author a&gift instead of payment. CHARITYWARE -&you are expected to give a donation to&a charity of the author's choice, or&perhaps your own. WORTHWARE - you send&the author what you believe their&software is worth. CARDWARE - Send the&author a postcard with a thank-you on.&BEERWARE - you have to buy the author&a round should you meet him. And so&on. In all cases read carefully the&documentation of all the software you&receive and follow the wishes of the&authors. You will find some cases&where the conditions are somewhat&confusing such as statements that the&software is copyrighted but also&public domain. In those cases try to&suss out what the author means and act
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