Re: [MacPerl] Distributables?

["Raffael Cavallaro" <raffael@mediaone.net>]

>From: Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>

> You keep forgetting that people who don't want to pay for your software
> simply won't, unless they have to.

And you keep forgetting that we don't live in such a simplistic,
black-and-white world - either they're good, moral, upstanding, law-abiding
joes, who want to pay for your software, or they never pay for software
unless they can't possibly avoid it.

In reality, most users fall in the middle. If you make copying, or
unauthorized use, hard, they will grudgingly pay. If you make copying easy,
they won't. This is why most software firms still try to make copying hard.

It's also why any sensible shareware author will try to make unauthorized
use hard too. This means allowing limited time, or limited functionality
previews to entice users into registering. I have several pieces of
share-ware that I've registered for precisely this reason. I can honestly
say, if they had shipped with no restrictions, I would still be happily
using them without having registered.

Why? Because I have a busy life, and cutting a shareware author a $30.00
check falls just slightly behind paying my 6 weeks overdue Sunday New York
Times subscription bill. Yeah, I'll get around to it, maybe, eventually. But
when I *need* functionality that's only available after registering, or my
limited time trial ends, I send the check pronto, because it's easier than
searching the net for a cracked version of $30.00 shareware I was going to
register for *anyway*.

Raf

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