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Freeware vs. Shareware
Copyright has been part of United States law since the 18th century. From the start, copyrighting was a divisive issue. Detractors of copyright argued that ideas should not be a subject of property and feared that "owners of ideas" would withhold their works from the public forever. Advocates of copyright lobbied that authors should have the right to control their own creative works.
Ultimately the Copyright Act of 1790 compromised by awarding authors a temporary monopoly over their works. Authors of books, charts, and maps were granted ownership of their works for fourteen years, with the option to renew for another fourteen years. Temporary ownership was viewed as a financial incentive for authors to increase their output, and thereby increase the knowledge of society at large.
Today copyright laws give the author control of his works for his lifetime plus seventy years, and until the advent of digital media, copyright was established and accepted by most everyone in the publishing industry.
With the advance of computer and networking technologies, works in digital media can be modified, copied, and distributed almost instantaneously. The proprietary software model still reigns in the digital world, but the Internet has enabled the sale of programs with new distribution methods (shareware) and programs with new philosophical overtones (free software).
Central to the new movements in software distribution are the availability of and freedom to modify source code. Although authors are able to share their works with a wider audience than ever before, copyright protection has become extremely difficult to enforce. In the software industry, the most effective means of enforcement is to keep the source code private from users. Many users and programmers have rebelled against their inability to customize software for their own purposes, and strongly believe that this restriction is an obstacle to the progress of society.
The original debate about intellectual property vis-à-vis copyright has become relevant once again. Does copyright law block creative progress by withholding source code and impeding collective authorship or does it foster innovation by giving incentives to individual authors?
Proprietary software is protected by patent or copyright. Users of software protected in this way generally do not have access to the program's source code.
The proprietary software model emerged as a paradigm during the late 1970's and early 1980's, and continues to dominate the software market. Software copyrighting and patenting is a logical continuation of non-digital copyrighting and patenting, a time-tested method of fostering creative and scientific output.
Shareware is software that is usually Internet-accessible, and has a license allowing the use and redistribution of copies, as long as the end-user pays a license fee. Shareware essentially hinges on an honor system, allowing the user to download software and try the program for free. If the user decides to keep the software beyond a specified amount of time, the shareware license requires that the user pay for it. Although this is not easy to enforce, there is usually an incentive for the user to pay; either through access to technical support or additional software functions, a printed copy of a user manual, or removal of automatic time limits that may have been programmed into the software.
In reality, shareware describes a distribution method rather than an actual type of software. Authors distribute their software directly to users at low cost and effort and retain control over their programs. For the user, shareware offers an alternative to excessively expensive and feature-heavy software offered by large companies and may provide access to software that would not be carried by large profit-driven vendors.
Although it is posted on the Internet, shareware is still protected by copyright. In most cases, the source code is not available. So, while it offers distribution alternatives to programmers and purchase alternatives to consumers, it is still proprietary and not considered to be any more collaborative than software from companies like Microsoft.
Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, pioneered the free software movement (freeware) by founding the GNU project, which promotes the development of an entirely free software system. It was originally designed to be upwardly compatible with the UNIX operating system, but presently boasts Linux, a GNU-based OS. The GNU General Public License fosters collaboration among programmers by enforcing the availability of source code.
Free software is first copyrighted, and then distributed with license terms that require all users and re-distributors to pass along the freedom to copy, change and distribute the software. This is commonly called "copylefting." Copylefted or free software is also referred to as open source software. The source code must, by definition, be available. The term freeware is often used interchangeably with open source or free software, but can also be used for packages which permit redistribution, but not modification, at no charge. It is important to note that the "free" in free software refers to liberty, not price, meaning that "free" software can be distributed both gratis or at cost. The impetus behind the free software movement is the idea that programming as a collaborative effort will advance society far more efficiently than will proprietary software.
One downside of freeware and shareware is reliability. Freeware and shareware adopted by a professional entity without the proper technical support is potentially disastrous. Freeware proponents argue, however, that open source code is in fact safer than most commercial software because it can be reviewed and modified by anyone.
Programmers are entitled to give up their copyrights and dedicate their work to the public domain. However, be warned that in this case a second programmer can contribute to the public program and assert ownership rights over the "new" program.
Additional Information
Freeware vs. Shareware
Copyright has been part of United States law since the 18th century. From the start, copyrighting was a divisive issue. Detractors of copyright argued that ideas should not be a subject of property and feared that "owners of ideas" would withhold their works from the public forever. Advocates of copyright lobbied that authors should have the right to control their own creative works.
Ultimately the Copyright Act of 1790 compromised by awarding authors a temporary monopoly over their works. Authors of books, charts, and maps were granted ownership of their works for fourteen years, with the option to renew for another fourteen years. Temporary ownership was viewed as a financial incentive for authors to increase their output, and thereby increase the knowledge of society at large.
Today copyright laws give the author control of his works for his lifetime plus seventy years, and until the advent of digital media, copyright was established and accepted by most everyone in the publishing industry.
With the advance of computer and networking technologies, works in digital media can be modified, copied, and distributed almost instantaneously. The proprietary software model still reigns in the digital world, but the Internet has enabled the sale of programs with new distribution methods (shareware) and programs with new philosophical overtones (free software).
Central to the new movements in software distribution are the availability of and freedom to modify source code. Although authors are able to share their works with a wider audience than ever before, copyright protection has become extremely difficult to enforce. In the software industry, the most effective means of enforcement is to keep the source code private from users. Many users and programmers have rebelled against their inability to customize software for their own purposes, and strongly believe that this restriction is an obstacle to the progress of society.
The original debate about intellectual property vis-à-vis copyright has become relevant once again. Does copyright law block creative progress by withholding source code and impeding collective authorship or does it foster innovation by giving incentives to individual authors?
Proprietary software is protected by patent or copyright. Users of software protected in this way generally do not have access to the program's source code.
The proprietary software model emerged as a paradigm during the late 1970's and early 1980's, and continues to dominate the software market. Software copyrighting and patenting is a logical continuation of non-digital copyrighting and patenting, a time-tested method of fostering creative and scientific output.
Shareware is software that is usually Internet-accessible, and has a license allowing the use and redistribution of copies, as long as the end-user pays a license fee. Shareware essentially hinges on an honor system, allowing the user to download software and try the program for free. If the user decides to keep the software beyond a specified amount of time, the shareware license requires that the user pay for it. Although this is not easy to enforce, there is usually an incentive for the user to pay; either through access to technical support or additional software functions, a printed copy of a user manual, or removal of automatic time limits that may have been programmed into the software.
In reality, shareware describes a distribution method rather than an actual type of software. Authors distribute their software directly to users at low cost and effort and retain control over their programs. For the user, shareware offers an alternative to excessively expensive and feature-heavy software offered by large companies and may provide access to software that would not be carried by large profit-driven vendors.
Although it is posted on the Internet, shareware is still protected by copyright. In most cases, the source code is not available. So, while it offers distribution alternatives to programmers and purchase alternatives to consumers, it is still proprietary and not considered to be any more collaborative than software from companies like Microsoft.
Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, pioneered the free software movement (freeware) by founding the GNU project, which promotes the development of an entirely free software system. It was originally designed to be upwardly compatible with the UNIX operating system, but presently boasts Linux, a GNU-based OS. The GNU General Public License fosters collaboration among programmers by enforcing the availability of source code.
Free software is first copyrighted, and then distributed with license terms that require all users and re-distributors to pass along the freedom to copy, change and distribute the software. This is commonly called "copylefting." Copylefted or free software is also referred to as open source software. The source code must, by definition, be available. The term freeware is often used interchangeably with open source or free software, but can also be used for packages which permit redistribution, but not modification, at no charge. It is important to note that the "free" in free software refers to liberty, not price, meaning that "free" software can be distributed both gratis or at cost. The impetus behind the free software movement is the idea that programming as a collaborative effort will advance society far more efficiently than will proprietary software.
One downside of freeware and shareware is reliability. Freeware and shareware adopted by a professional entity without the proper technical support is potentially disastrous. Freeware proponents argue, however, that open source code is in fact safer than most commercial software because it can be reviewed and modified by anyone.
Programmers are entitled to give up their copyrights and dedicate their work to the public domain. However, be warned that in this case a second programmer can contribute to the public program and assert ownership rights over the "new" program.