Newsgroups: bit.listserv.i-amiga
Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 1992 12:40:06 MET
From:         Branko Collin <U249026@HNYKUN11.BITNET>
Subject:      Commercial use of PD

The following letter I sent a week ago to the PD-software authors
mentioned in it. It's about a computer chain store that may be making
commercial use of PD software without having the authors' approval.
I tried to send this mail last friday, but I didn't get any answer.
Could someone tell me if it reached the list?
I am not a subscriber of I-Amiga anymore. Could you please send comments
to my e-mail adress mentioned below. I will make a digest of all the
comments and send it back to the list.
What do you think about practices as mentioned in my letter?
Was I right in writing and sending this letter?
All kinds of comments are appreciated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: The authors of the public domain programmes Connex, NComm, PaulCopy, P-
Reader and Term.
cc: Amiga Format and the subscribers of the Bitnet mailing list I-Amiga.



Nijmegen, 30 October 1992.



     Dear author,

While reading the October 1992 issue of Amiga Format I noticed an advertisement
from Diamond Computer Systems Ltd. in which they bundled an Amiga 600 with 111
PD titles (on 30 disks). The programme you made is one of those. Since you made
clear in the document accompanying your software that you do not wish to see
your work included in a commercial package I thought you might like to know
about this. Of course I cannot be sure that I have the latest version of your
software somewhere on a disk, so it might be that in a later version you
abandoned that restriction.
  Also it may be the case that Diamond have obtained your permission to sell
your programme along with their computers. In both cases you can ignore this
letter.
  If however this is not so then I urge you to take action against the
practices of the above mentioned computer store. You might not care that much
about it, but should Diamond really sell copyrighted PD then other authors
than you might suffer from this.
  The least you can do is send them a letter explaining that you do not wish
to see your programmes included in their collection. You could go further and
warn the Federation Against Software Theft in the United Kingdom where Diamond
are located.
  I must admit that I am not completely sure about the legal side of the
matter, since I am not very familiar with British Law. Also some people might
argue that the extra price Diamond ask for the inclusion of the disks is the
same as any PD-library would ask. This however does not change the fact that
they are making commercial use of PD. The Amiga 600 is mainly aimed at
first-time-computer-buyers who are not aware they are buying software they can
easily get cheaper and that they only pay the price of distribution for.
They still have to pay for the shareware if they are going to use it, a fact
not mentioned in the advertisement.
  If I am wrong about Diamond selling your software illegally then do nothing.
If I am right then please take some action.
  My interest in this is as follows: I am an Amiga fan and user. PD is for me
something valuable. Not only is it my biggest source of software but it also
pleases me greatly that there are people in this world who put large amounts
of time and energy into a project which they then share with others without
personal gain. If the big computer chains are going to ignore the rights of
the charitable the PD might cease to exist. Please do not let them.
  The address of Diamond Computer Systems Ltd. is:
     84 Lodge Road
     Southampton
     United Kingdom
     telephone number 0703 232777
  The address of Amiga Format is:
     30 Monmouth Street
     Bath BA1 2DL
     United Kingdom
     telephone number 0225 442244
  The address of FAST is:
     telephone number U.K. 071 - 497 8973
     or               U.K. 01 - 240 6756
     (I have got these numbers from old issues of computer magazines so they
     may not be current).
Yours faithfully,

     Branko Collin
     Tolhuis 32-13
     6537 ND Nijmegen
     The Netherlands
     email: u249026@hnykun11.urc.kun.nl (internet)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It could well be that I am not the first one to notice this and that a
discussion about it has already taken place, but since I am, due to a
shortage of mail reading time, no longer a subscriber to this list I
have no way of knowing so.


.......................................................................
.       Branko Collin                . 'Nonsense is the opposite      .
.       u249026@hnykun11.urc.kun.nl  .  of sense and should           .
.   //  u249026@hnykun11.bitnet      .  therefor be taken serious-    .
. \X/   bcollin@mpi.kun.nl (work)    .  ly.' - I                      .
.......................................................................
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