🚀 go-pugleaf

I guess I will have to give up asking this question.  Nobody has yet to
say what the difference between copying a file from the news spools on
(usually somebody else's) machine and downloading from a BBS, yours or
somebody else's.

The reason is that there isn't a difference.  Both are non-passive actions.
Both get you a copy of the software which the author has permitted you to
get.   If you go to the trouble and cost of subscribing to USENET (somebody
called USENET unsolicited!  Tee hee) and shareware comes to you through that
route, it's because the author wanted you to have a copy.  If you download
shareware from a BBS or get it at a swap fest, it's because the author
wanted you to have a copy.   No difference here.

And in both cases, it's pretty explicit that the author gave you this copy...
for evaluation.   If shareware via usenet is invalid, then so is shareware
by any other means, except an mutually agreed upon evaluation contract.

And if you want the law to require a mutually agreed evaluation contract
in all cases, then you're asking for a world of lawyers and of virtually
no good shareware.   You may get what you ask for.

To the best of my knowledge, these laws are new enough that no court has
ruled on whether "you may copy for evaluation purposes only" is a valid
restriction a copyright holder may place on copying.  We may never know.
None of use know, that's for sure.   I still think it is improper to
ignore such a restriction, law or no law, simply because I know it is the
code that has the value, not the bits on the disk.  This "unsolicited
book" mentality comes from people who think software should cost $2 because
disks cost that.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont. (519) 884-7473