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Date: Wed, 24 May 95 18:26 MDT
From: ctm@ardi.com (Clifford T. Matthews)
To: executor@nacm.com
Subject: copyrighted programs and redistribution
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Hi Folks,
In the U.S. all programs are automatically copyrighted as soon as
they're written. As such, everyone should be VERY careful about
redistributing any program or even text file.
Because ARDI includes so many pieces of shareware, demoware and
freeware in our Executor distribution, it may look like we just
randomly pick up software and redistribute it. That's not the case.
We carefully examine anything we pick up and make sure that the author
has given permission to redistribute it. In some cases we have to
explicitly ask permission (as we did for StuffIt expander).
Please do not assume that anything you pick up on a bulletin board can
then be redistributed, even if it is clearly an old application, or
clearly is a demo version. Some bulletin boards make special
arrangements with program authors such that their program, perhaps
even only a demo version, can be freely downloaded by users of that
bulletin board, but CANNOT be redistributed beyond that.
Always err on the side of cautiousness. That's what we do over here.
Thank you.
--Cliff
ctm@ardi.com
[BTW, I hope this note doesn't sound too USA-centric. I believe many
countries have similar laws, due to the adoption of the Berne (sp?)
guidelines, but since ARDI is a USA company, we are especially
concerned with USA laws, even though many of our customers are in
