davidbrierley@lynx.northeastern.edu (05/23/89)
There has been some discussion lately on the legitimacy of copying
ProDOS so that disks of an individual's software can be sold. I'm
wondering if Apple allows people who write shareware to copy DOS 3.3 so
that their work has an operating system. Please respond on the net so that
those who are interested can find out. Thanx, in advance.
davidbrierley@lynx.northeastern.edunazgul@obsolete.UUCP (Kee Hinckley) (05/23/89)
ProDOS so that disks of an individual's software can be sold. I'm
wondering if Apple allows people who write shareware to copy DOS 3.3 so
that their work has an operating system. Please respond on the net so that
those who are interested can find out. Thanx, in advance.
The last I looked into this you had to license DOS from Apple.
Which could be done for $50/year.
-kee
Home: obsolete!nazgul@bloom-beacon.mit.edu
Work: nazgul@apollo.com
BBS: obsolete!pro-angmar!nazgul@bloom-beacon.mit.edu
or
nazgul@pro-angmar.cts.com (somewhat slower though)
617/641-3722 (300/1200/2400)
-------SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (05/23/89)
>wondering if Apple allows people who write shareware to copy DOS 3.3 so >that their work has an operating system. Please respond on the net so that >those who are interested can find out. Thanx, in advance. Apple has a legitimate interest in preserving their rights to DOS 3.3. In order to do so, they have to have some sort of legal agreement with those who distribute the operating system. Originally Apple spent most of their energy hiring programmers and engineers. By the time the lawyers got around to worrying about copying DOS 3.3 with disks, every user group in Christendom was willy-nilly distributing HUGE quantities of public domain software on disks which also contained DOS 3.3. Apple's solution is to license DOS 3.3 at REALLY INEXPENSIVE terms -- something like $75 for a lifetime license. So, if you really want to distribute disks with DOS 3.3 on them, there's very little excuse not to sign a license aggreement with Apple. Of course, most users who know enough to know what shareware is also know how to copy a program onto a disk which has DOS 3.3 on it (I'm a licensed user of Diversi-DOS myself). The question leads to the curious prospect of a shareware author muttering about the "pirates" while simultaneously pirating Apple's operating system :-O Murph Sewall Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90] Prof. of Marketing Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET] U of Connecticut {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP] (203) 486-5246 [FAX] (203) 486-2489 [PHONE] 41 49N 72 15W [ICBM] -+- I don't speak for my employer, though I frequently wish that I could (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)
delton@pro-carolina.UUCP (Don Elton) (05/23/89)
Network Comment: to #2936 by obsolete!davidbrierley%lynx.northeastern.edu
Shareware authors can license DOS or ProDOS just like anyone else and are
required to do so legally. It only costs about $50 per product per year so
it's no big deal to stay legal here.
UUCP: [ sdcsvax nosc ] !crash!pro-carolina!delton
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US Mail: 3207 Berkeley Forest Drive, Columbia, SC 29209-4111ALBRO@NIEHS.BITNET (05/24/89)
davidbrierley@LYNX.NORTHEASTERN.EDU wrote to ask about the legitimacy of distributing DOS 3.3 with shareware. This comes up in another aspect also, when a whole-disk-shrinker (e.g.DDD, PBH, etc) is used on a DOS 3.3 disk. The DOS 3.3 image from tracks 0-2 is included in the archive and therefore transmitted with it. Unless Apple has recently released DOS 3.3 to the public domain, and I don't think they have (but it's possible), it is and long has been considered copyright infringment to upload such a packed disk to a BBS. The disk packer Digipack.GS is a good example of a company going out of their way to honor copyright laws. Digipack will archive a DOS 3.3 disk, but specifically avoids including the DOS image tracks. -Phil Albro-