🚀 go-pugleaf

  It seems to me that a good argument could be made that a
 shareware fee is nothing more than an offer to sell.  You as
abuyer have the option of paying the price or negotiating a
 lower price.  If you don't think the shareware is worth the
 requested fee, you should write to the author and offer what you
 think it is worth.  Anyone who thinks that authors should simply
 get what they ask must not be aware of the fundamentals of business 
 economics.  Very few companies get their "list" price for a product.
 A product is only worth what the market says it is worth.  If you
 want to use other factors to identify the value of a product, that
 is only relevant for your choice of what to offer the shareware's 
 author.  
	
	As for whether it is illegal to get copies of a product that
 was published by a now-defunct business: it is still probably illegal.
 Keep in mind that even if the company owned the product, someone else
 owned the company.  If the company goes out of business, the owner's 
 still retain ownership of the rights to the product.  If the company
 goes into bankruptcy, the owner's or the creditors may end up owning
 the rights.  The rights to software don't simply disappear if a company 
 folds.

	Since I'm not a lawyer, this could all be wrong, but it is
 how I would approach dealing with your questions.


  			Bruce McNamara
			bhclg@garnet.berkeley.edu