Re: [NTLK] Copyright etc

From: Michael J. Hußmann (michael_at_michael-hussmann.de)
Date: Thu Sep 06 2001 - 13:13:36 EDT


Gruendel, Frank 3837 PPE-S3 (Frank.Gruendel_at_de.heidelberg.com) wrote:

> No! Although I occasionally think that I am the only one with this
> attitude, I think that I have an obligation to support software I have
> sold. Actually, I also think I have an obligation to support my freeware,
> but that's another matter.

Frank,

I do support my software, including freeware, but I cannot support it
indefinitely. I won't live forever, for one thing.

Many years ago, 1989 I think it was, I wrote a little HyperCard stack
called HyperLit, purely for my own use originally. Over time, I added a
couple of bells and whistles, and decided to distribute it -- the full
version, not a demo -- as shareware. To my surprise, some people actually
liked it so much that they paid the shareware fee (40 DM), and within a
year or so, I had some 20 registered users. From time to time, I
published updates, and notified all the registered users (by snail mail,
as email wasn't that common then as it was now) of the new release. If
users, registered or not, found bugs, I corrected them immediately. Some
users asked for specialized versions with extra features, and they got
them. All the updates were free, and I did the customized versions at no
charge as well. I was working on an all-new, improved version, but then a
change of jobs meant that I had less use for HyperLit myself, and also
less spare time to work on it. When I finally got around to continue its
development, it turned out the stack was corrupted beyond repair, and the
backup was corrupted as well -- meaning that all my previous efforts were
lost, as was all the data I had laboriously entered during the years. I
still have the last officially distributed version (without any data) and
the manual, but that's about it.

Now if someone would ask me for support, I would do what I could, but
that's not much. There won't be any upgrades, for one thing. Would I mind
if someone stumbled upon this software in an old shareware compilation,
found it useful but didn't pay the shareware fee? Not at all, and I don't
see why I should. In fact, if someone did send me 40 DM, I would return
it, but if users don't mind that I can't provide much in the way of
support, then I wouldn't mind either if they used it anyway.

- Michael

Michael J. Hussmann

E-mail: michael_at_michael-hussmann.de
WWW: http://michael-hussmann.de

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