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Share-aware: A new shareware model proposal
by Floydman


Bachelor in Computer Sciences
[email protected]
August 15th, 2000

You can distribute this document freely, as long as no changes are made to the file, or as long as someone else does not pretend credit for it. All comments and suggestions about the material presented here should be directed at [email protected]. If future versions of this document include add-ons coming from other people than me, then proper credit to the various authors will be clearly identified. All version updates of this document are to be released by me.

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to present a new way for shareware software authors to license their products and try to make a decent living from it. I don't know if something similar is already in use, but if not, I hope this will benefit shareware authors.

Preface

Shareware programs have been around for a long time, even before the Internet went commercial, and it's main advantage is that it lets potential buyers to try the software before deciding if they buy it or not (imagine if Microsoft was a shareware company!). But it also has a few problems. Many people due to pay the software under the license agreement fail to do so for a number of reasons (that I will not discuss here), thus preventing software authors from receiving much needed income. I will present here a different way for shareware authors to get their fair share (pun intended) of the software pie.

Targeted audience

This document is presented to anyone who has interests in intellectual property, software authoring, online privacy, shareware and computing in general.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Some shareware models
3. A Pandora's box: spyware
4. Turning corporate guns against itself: share-aware
5. In conclusion

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