From: marca@mcom.com (Marc Andreessen)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www.misc,comp.infosystems.www.users,
            comp.infosystems.www.providers
Subject: some FAQs about Netscape, with answers
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 1994 01:46:23 -0800

This is a draft of an FAQ that may be posted regularly to try to
address some of the questions people are posing in these groups.


Some FAQs -- Netscape Communications Corp.

Q.  Where can I get Netscape software?

A.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N, an Internet browser for Windows, Mac,
    and most Unix/X platforms, can be downloaded via anonymous
    FTP from ftp.mcom.com.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N should be used
    according to the license terms included with the program -- it's
    free to educational and nonprofit users and free for unlimited
    evaluation use by other users.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N is a
    fully-functional Internet navigator with integrated RSA-based
    security capabilities, excellent performance characteristics for
    low bandwidth (e.g. 14.4kb) lines, and full cross-platform
    functionality.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N will soon be available
    for downloading from several mirror sites as well.

    Netscape Navigator 1.0 can be purchased for corporate use
    from Netscape Communications Corp.  Prices start at $39 for
    a single user and decline for volume purchases.  Contact sales@mcom.com
    or see http://www.mcom.com/ for details.  Netscape Navigator 1.0
    is available immediately.

    Netscape's Netsite Communications Server 1.0 and Netsite Commerce
    Server 1.0 can also be purchased from Netscape Communications Corp.
    The Communications Server is an HTTP server engineered for efficiency,
    performance, stability, and ease of configuration and maintenance
    and interoperates with all HTTP-based Internet navigators, including
    Netscape Navigator.  The Commerce Server adds integrated RSA-based
    security capabilities using the open Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
    protocol, which is supported by Netscape Navigator 1.0 (and 1.0N),
    for authentication and encryption of secure network sessions.
    Contact sales@mcom.com or see http://www.mcom.com/ for more details.
    Both the Communications Server and the Commerce Server are available
    immediately.

Q.  What's the difference between Netscape Navigator 1.0N and Netscape
    Navigator 1.0?

A.  Different license terms.  1.0N is free for educational and nonprofit
    users and free for unlimited evaluation use by other users.  1.0 is
    the for-sale version.  1.0N and 1.0 are functionally the same.

Q.  Will Netscape Navigator always be available free to educational
    and nonprofit users and free for evaluation use by other users?

A.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N will always be available under its current
    license terms.  Future versions of Netscape Navigator may or may not
    be available under the same or different license terms.  (Frankly,
    we don't know yet.)

Q.  Why are you giving Netscape Navigator 1.0N away free to educational
    and nonprofit users and free for unlimited evaluation use to other
    users?  Are you trying to take over the market, establish a monopoly,
    or force people to use your commercial servers?

A.  Netscape Navigator 1.0N is being given free to educational and
    nonprofit users and free for unlimited evaluation use to other users
    for two reasons: (1) This is our way of helping to continue the renaissance
    of experimentation and innovation that has made the Internet into
    what it is today -- a fantastically diverse and dynamic environment
    for all types of information and communication activities and services;
    (2) As a company, we don't think it makes any sense to only make
    front-end software available to paying customers -- we think that we
    can help grow the market and can help enable a marketplace for commerce
    and commerce-related activities on the Internet in parallel with the
    historical foundation of the Internet as a space for academic and research
    activities by giving away our client software to educational and
    nonprofit users and making it free for evaluation use by others.
    We think those who are willing to pay for front-end software will do
    so anyway, particularly once they have seen our product and have had
    a chance to use it extensively, and we think that Netscape Navigator
    favorably reflects the overall quality of the wide range of software 
    offerings our company is producing.  We hope that people who enjoy
    using Netscape Navigator will consider our other software offerings
    now and in the future.

    We aren't trying to take over the market, establish a monopoly,
    or force people to use our commercial servers.  Netscape Navigator
    and our Netsite server line is aggressively standards-compliant
    and fully interoperable with offerings from other companies.  Our
    Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security protocol is openly available
    on the Internet, is being issued as an informational RFC, and is
    being proposed to all relevant standards activities (particularly the
    W3O working group on security) in parallel with other security proposals
    such as SHTTP.  We want people to use our browsers with other servers
    and our servers with other browsers, and we are aggressively working
    to make sure this happens.  Expect us to be an early adopter of many
    new, open capabilities and standards in the near future.  There's no
    chance we'll be able to establish a monopoly in a market as innovative
    and vibrant as this one, and being proprietary or closed in our technology
    or our products would only close us out of the market as we move forward.

Q.  How can I learn more about security features offered by Netscape software?

A.  For a description of Netscape's current approach to data security
    on the Internet, see http://home.mcom.com/info/security-doc.html.
    That document points to additional information, including the
    full SSL protocol specification.

Q.  What are the exact license terms for Netscape Navigator 1.0N?

A.  The most interesting part of the license follows:

GRANT.  Subject to the provisions contained herein, Netscape
Communications Corporation ("Netscape") hereby grants you a
non-exclusive license to use its accompanying proprietary software
product ("Software") free of charge if (a) you are a student, faculty
member or staff member of an educational institution (K-12, junior
college or college) or an employee of a non-profit organization; or (b)
your use of the Software is for the purpose of evaluating whether to
purchase an ongoing license to the Software. If you do not fit within
the description above, a license fee is due to Netscape and no license
is granted herein.  If you are using a free version of the Software,
you will not be entitled to support or telephone assistance.

    Please read the license that comes with Netscape Navigator 1.0N
    in its entirety; for example, it contains important provisions
    concerning exportability.

Q.  I thought you originally said Netscape Navigator would be
    free for personal use.  That license instead says free for
    educational and nonprofit users and free for evaluation use
    by others.  What's up?

A.  We found that trying to craft a license that accommodated personal
    use per se while restricting free use by companies -- our original 
    intent -- was nearly impossible and inevitably led to confusion on the part
    of the users, as has been evident in Usenet discussions over the past
    few months as people have tried to understand just what "personal
    use" means anyway.  So we've disambiguated the situation by defining
    two classes of users -- educational and nonprofit users, and everyone
    else -- and saying that Netscape Navigator is free (totally free,
    with no restrictions on type of use or anything else) for educational
    and nonprofit users and free for evaluation use (with no time limit
    or loss of functionality) for other users, who will primarily be
    employees of companies.  We feel this both adheres to the spirit
    of our intent while cleanly defining what you as an individual user
    can do with the software, with no restrictions whatsoever based on
    class of use.

Q.  What's the difference between the beta license for the 0.9x versions
    of Netscape Navigator I've been using up until now, and the 1.0N
    license?

A.  The Netscape Navigator beta license allowed use "for evaluation and 
    trial use purposes only".  The Netscape Navigator 1.0N license
    specifies that educational and nonprofit users may use it for free
    and that other users may use it for evaluation purposes.  The beta
    license specified expiration "within thirty (30) days following 
    Netscape's release of a commercial version of the Software"; the
    1.0N license does not expire on any date (for either educational
    and nonprofit users or other users).

Q.  I'm using Netscape Navigator 1.0N and I want to purchase a supported
    version.  What should I do?

A.  For the time being, contact sales@mcom.com and see the information
    available at http://www.mcom.com/.  It will soon be possible to
    purchase a supported version of Netscape Navigator directly over
    the net.

Q.  Can I mirror Netscape Navigator 1.0N to the Internet?

A.  If you wish to mirror Netscape Navigator 1.0N to the Internet,
    please contact mirror@mcom.com.  In general, we will be permitting
    educational and nonprofit sites to mirror Netscape Navigator 1.0N
    and not permitting commercial sites to do so.

Cheers,
Marc

-- 
Marc Andreessen
Netscape Communications Corp.
Mountain View, CA
marca@mcom.com