brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (02/15/91)
Somehow it occurs to me that the legally proper way to sell shareware is to say ``This program is Copyright 1990 Joe Shmoe. All rights reserved. If you pay me $5.00 by check or money order to the address below, you buy the right to make one copy of this program and give it to someone else. You don't have to pay me to make backup copies, if nobody else ever uses those copies; Federal law gives you that right. You also don't have to pay me if you give the software---AND all backup copies, meaning none left for you---to someone else. You may not copy or distribute this program in any other way.'' Some people would dispute whether this can still be called shareware, but it has the same intended effect as shareware: if N people use the program, about N people pay for it, while distribution is relatively easy. It's also on solid legal ground. ---Dan