Posted by Cain on July 24, 1998 at 17:51:47:
In Reply to: Is this A scam? posted by Cain on July 24, 1998 at 02:00:46:
[Editor's Warning:
The following comment appears to equate "shareware" and "freeware";
however, shareware is not freeware, and freeware is not shareware.
"The Federal Zone" was NEVER released by the author as "freeware".
See $25.00 shareware fee, quoted expressly below.
It was originally stolen and modified then hosted on the Internet by AOL
but withOUT the author's permission. See items (3) and (4) below:
"the requirement that users not modify the content in any way":
NOTE WELL at (4) below that:
bold is not bold;
italics are not italics; and,
underlines are not underlines!
The latter misconduct violated the author's exclusive copyrights e.g.
see VERIFIED COMPLAINT here: http://www.supremelaw.org/cc/aol/index.htm
Moreover, a Federal District Court has already ruled that
hyperlinks to stolen intellectual property are copyright infringements:
see published decision in Universal City Studios v. Reimerdes]
Remember the good old days back before everyone was on the Internet. If you wanted to tryout some
of the newest shareware you had to either buy a shareware cd rom or dial up a BBS system and see if
anything new had been uploaded. Back then all the big bulletin boards exchanged new shareware with
each other. This was to the advantage of software writers why could not otherwise afford to have
their programs distributed by traditional means. Indeed this was how the very concept of shareware
was born. In time a few software companies joined the band wagon as well. Later when internet
access was opened to every one with a home computer many of the bbs operators transferred their
systems to web pages. Now it has advanced to the point where anyone with the least bit of skills can
have there own web page. There are literally thousands of preinternet shareware programs that can be
found on the internet. Some of the more popular ones that come to mind are the commander keen 1,
2, 3 &4. Jill of the jungle, Duke Nuken 1, 2, & 3, Lemmings, and Wolf3d. The original point of
shareware was to get mass distribution of a program. Once something was set free into the shareware
exchange system there was no way to bring it back. No way to predict how far it would go. Paul was
fortunate that his book made it all the way to the internet. If the current so called industry shareware
standards are different than what I described. It would be because someone came along later and and
stuck some standards on something already in place. I know how the shareware concept started out
because I lived it. I doubt any of you remember and old dos screen saver called explode. I wrote this
for a school project back in the early 80's. It was a somewhat popular program up until windows 3.1
came out. I have seen my program modified and renamed in various BBS and Shareware CD ROM's.
The point I'm making is I started programing back in the 1970's on a Ti 994a way before there was an
industry standard. I know how shareware worked when the concept first came to be. I don't think the
concept has changed much since then. One of the nice things about marketing your product as
shareware was you could dictate the conditions of its transfer By including a Shareware policy
statement. The statement included with the federal zone it clearly states that the The Federal Zone is
being distributed as shareware. This can be read in the first paragraph first sentience. In paragraph
marked 1 permission to freely distribute the program in its original form is given, as long as no revenue
is made from doing so. You see this is the key to shareware you want everyone to pass it on but you
don't want them to make a profit from you work. Paragraphs marked 3, 4, & 5 Give people permission
to convert the document from word perfect to other word processor formats. The paragraph market 4
is the one Paul is always harking about. It is however straight forward. If he has found someone
violating these restrictions he should work the problem out with them. What he should not do is hassle
someone who is linking to his original word perfect shareware book. He should not be calling anyone a
copyright violator for having an honest link to a shareware program. I'm sorry if he wants his work
pulled from the electronic world of cyber space. That's to bad. He should have thought about that
before he unleashed it into the system.
I think there is some reason why he wants his book pulled from cyber space and i don't think it has
anything to do with the paragraph marked 4. As far as keeping the program for 30 days goes that's fine
if your evaluating it for your personal use. This time limit dos not apply to a shareware distributor
archiving the program so that others might review it. This has been standard practice in the shareware
industry since its beginning. How many of you have shareware cd ROM's at home? What should you
do, try and delete every program on the cd after it has been in your prosecution for 30 days? And yes
The Federal zone has made it onto a shareware cd! Intelligent shareware programers put a clause
asking that the program not be used after a 10 to 30 trial period. there is no time limit on the Federal
Zone evaluation period at all. This crud about a 30 day industry standard is just that. crud sense the
programer imposes what ever restrictions on his work he pleases its hard to stretch what other people
are doing onto his work. The Author of The Federal Zone chose of his own freewill or Ignorance to
exclude a time restriction. Both for the distributor and the evaluator
Keep in mind that a jury of 12 of your peers will have to be convinced that a link to a shareware file
was a crime. It will also cost someone a lot of money to take this to court. I guarantee no one will do a
day of jail time for having a link to this shareware file. Nor will they pay damages.
Someone sent me the file below for review it should shed some light on things.
I'm actively looking for a copy of the original wordperfect version submitted as shareware. If I find it, I
will legally post it on my shareware site and keep it there until i get a court saying other wise.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHAREWARE POLICY
The electronic fourth edition of The Federal Zone is being
distributed as computer "shareware". The purpose of shareware is
to combine personal honor with the phenomenon of spontaneous
digital reproduction. If the information contained in the
electronic fourth edition is useful in any way, we ask that its
recipients send $25 in cash or blank money order to:
Account for Better Citizenship
c/o USPS Post Office Box 6189
San Rafael, California Republic
Postal Code 94903-0189/tdc
In this way, value is freely and efficiently given for value
received, and we are thereby provided with financial support
which is vital for us to continue our work to benefit the Freedom
Movement in America. Sorry, but we do not accept credit cards of
any kind. To send a blank money order, leave the "pay to" line
blank.
If the information contained in the electronic fourth edition is
not useful, then its recipients are not expected to send any
payment. In either event, recipients are expected to honor the
copyright restrictions which are stated in the PREFACE. These
are repeated as follows:
(1) The information contained in this book is lawfully protected
from reproduction infringements for purposes of generating
revenue of any kind.
(2) Violators are hereby warned that they can and will be
prosecuted to the full extent of American law, at the sole
discretion of the Author and Publisher.
(3) The only other restriction on the use and dissemination of
the electronic fourth edition is the requirement that users
not modify the content of the character stream in any way.
(4) The purpose of this requirement is faithfully to preserve
all punctuation, Capitalization, bold, italics and
underlines exactly as found in the original text.
(5) Permission is hereby given to translate the electronic
fourth edition into formats compatible with different word
processors, resulting at most in cosmetic changes like
different margins which may cause changes in pagination.
May you come to cherish the birthright of freedom which is yours
to claim and to share.