🚀 go-pugleaf

In <XNBcN2w162w@cybrspc> cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes:

>sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes:

>> Perhaps there IS such a name and I simply do not know it. At one time
>> I thought "Freeware" was the right term, but then I saw that term used to
>> describe what is more widely known as Shareware.

>What you saw was a mis-application of the term. Freeware is, I believe,
>the correct term for copyrighted free software.

*The* correct term?  Who decided this?  I really want to know, it'd
make manual writing so much easier if I could just go ask some what
*the* correct meaning of words like "microcode" and "baud".

Anyway, I'm afraid Bob is correct.  I distinctly remember reading an
article on Quicksoft (in Microtimes, I think) that said that they'd
registered the word "freeware" as a trademark.  This was back when the
shareware business was just getting going, and there wasn't any
general term for it.  Probably if they'd registered another name
"freeware" would be the generic term now instead of "shareware".

It's a pity, since once you've called the "no charge for just trying
it" software "shareware", "freeware" is the logical name for "no
charge at all but it's still copyrighted" software.  But human
language is often illogical -- and it's just as well that we all don't
talk in Prolog!

Still, I've noticed that Quicksoft hasn't used that word much lately.
(Not at all in my copy of PCBrowse [yes, I'm gonna send in my $10
RSN].)  Perhaps they can be persuaded to let "freeware" lapse, if they
haven't already.  In the mean time, you probably shouldn't correct
people when they misuse "public domain".  People think it's really
obnoxious.  At least they seem to when *I* do it!
-- 

ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo		Silicon Valley, CA
uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo

	"I hate quotations.  Tell me what you know!"
			-- Ralph Waldo Emerson