Open source shareware?

[John Cowan]

Forrest J. Cavalier III wrote:

> Can someone point out the OSD violation of a shareware 
> license such as the following?  I realize it violates
> the spirit of the OSD, but I cannot find where it violates
> the "letter" of the OSD.  The OSD is silent on "use" and
> I think this illustrates the problem.


There is no obvious violation, but the license is probably
not enforceable either, since it purports to forbid people
from doing something -- using the program -- that is permitted
by law.  To constrain the user, the user would have to do
something to accept the contract.

Furthermore, there are obvious practical problems.  When
does the 30 days start to run?

IANAL, TINLA, YADA.


> Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>
> As long as this permission notice and disclaimer are included, any
> person obtaining a copy of this software may distribute this
> software or derivatives.
> 
> If you decide to run the software after a 30 day evaluation period,
> you must pay a fee of $20 to <copyright holder.>
> 
> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
> EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
> MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
> NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
> HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
> WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
> FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
> OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
> 
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> license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
> 
> 
> 



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