darin@tmq.UUCP (Darin Adler) (03/01/85)
I was quite dismayed recently when a version of FEdit 2.1 refused to run telling me that it was no longer authorized, or something like that. I think that putting code like that in a program which purports to be "FreeWare" (or whatever term the author chose) is obnoxious. I had only used the FEdit for 2 or 3 days and after seeing something like that, I do NOT intend to send a fee to the author. Trying to do something like that is futile because bypassing the "expiration" code is very easy. Only one person needs to do it and then a copy exists which can be used past the expiration date. I resist the temptation to post a modified version that works forever only in the hopes that the author of FEdit will not waste his time putting such code into what is otherwise a fine program. Darin Adler ihnp4!tmq!darin
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (03/03/85)
> I was quite dismayed recently when a version of FEdit 2.1 refused to run > telling me that it was no longer authorized, or something like that. If it is true that such a program was posted to the net, this would seem to be an advertisement, as surely as if one posted a verbal description of the features of a product, then asked for the users to buy it in order to experience it firsthand -- the difference being that the "description" consisted of an opportunity TO see it firsthand (like a participatory TV commercial). It has been my understanding that such advertisements are forbidden on the net; and pushing the definition of "freeware" into this grey area would seem to endanger the ability to distribute it at all.