Shareware future

More and more people nowdays are beginning to use shareware programs. This has already resulted in a problem for music companies. But in the future, with shareware programs becoming more advanced and popular, is it possible that there will be a crisis for software creators, that it will lead to the collapse of some big firms. Or will shareware have to be banned and made illegal after a few years.

I'm positive shareware will be banned in a few years. It's just too easy to get programs/movies/games for free using this stuff.

Originally posted by WaStEdDeAtH777
I'm positive shareware will be banned in a few years. It's just too easy to get programs/movies/games for free using this stuff.

You're 'positive'? Why?

It'd be a shame if code writers who want to share some of their own software they created were banned from doing so... especially if they didn't infringe on any copyrights.

I use a few incredible shareware programs that are better than anything I can purchase.

I guess you mean filesharing programs, not shareware.

Definition of Shareware:
software that has been copyrighted but which is sold to users with Shareware/Limited and Payware/Full Feature lisences.

Shareware is software developed to have 2 feature sets. The shareware feature set is normaly a limited version of the program with a timeout built into it. When a lisence for this application is bought, the program can be unlocked to be full featured and unlimited in use.

What your talking about is filesharing programs, which at this point are mainly freeware or subscriptionware.

They might be outbanned at some time, by some nations, but good luck to them, as long as the internet exists, filesharing will always exist.

(g) You beat me to the punch, here!

Originally posted by thematrix
I guess you mean filesharing programs, not shareware.

Definition of Shareware:
software that has been copyrighted but which is sold to users with Shareware/Limited and Payware/Full Feature lisences.

Shareware is software developed to have 2 feature sets. The shareware feature set is normaly a limited version of the program with a timeout built into it. When a lisence for this application is bought, the program can be unlocked to be full featured and unlimited in use.

This model for software has been around for a very long time (at least 20 years) and it's pretty solid. It has the advantage of giving a free program to someone who needs only a few features and the option of allowing the user to buy after trying rather than taking home something useless. I've bought a number of shareware packages.

What your talking about is filesharing programs, which at this point are mainly freeware or subscriptionware

They might be outbanned at some time, by some nations, but good luck to them, as long as the internet exists, filesharing will always exist.

I tend to agree. I doubt a good solution will be found. What I'm afraid will happen is that artists will need to make money and will eventually end up working for corporations who will tell them what to produce and what message it should deliver.

While the notion that "art should be free" is nice, I know of two artists who committed suicide within the past year because they were in financial straits. Fame doesn't equal money, either. One of the most famous Mad Magazine artists died in January, and I know that he had to work (although he was 84 and in very poor health) till he was hospitalized to try and get enough money to pay his bills.

What I'm afraid will happen is that artists will need to make money and will eventually end up working for corporations who will tell them what to produce and what message it should deliver.

Might come as a shock to you, but thats how popular/mainstream music is already.

Its so hard to make a paying carreer in music these days, because music corporations block out everyone except the ones they have under contract.

Thats why underground record labels have sprung out of the ground like mushrooms the last few decades.

The big record labels are in league with the store chains and radio stations and tell what music can be broadcasted and what can't. They have a grip on the industry and the people signed with them.

The only way to give every musician a chance again is if and when the big record labels get destroyed once and for all.

No more corporate record labels = no more britney spear' and backstreet boys. Bands that are created, trained and molded to make money, not to make music.

Originally posted by siddharthsma
More and more people nowdays are beginning to use shareware programs. This has already resulted in a problem for music companies. But in the future, with shareware programs becoming more advanced and popular, is it possible that there will be a crisis for software creators, that it will lead to the collapse of some big firms. Or will shareware have to be banned and made illegal after a few years.

Problems for Record Companies...cry me a fricken river. They are some of the most evil and greedy corps out there atm. Music Industry will survive, the record industry is dying...

Here is all the media that is down...

Music: Sales down 21% since '99 -- Due to crappy quality NOT filesharing... they also had record profits in 2004....what gives It cannot be both ways....

TV Ratings down by a third since '85

Radio Listernship at 27 year low

Newspapers Circulation peeked in '87 and the Decline is Accelorating

Magazines: Circulation peeked in 2000 but some titles are bucking the trend

Books: Sales growth is lagging the economy

And here is what is in an uptrend..

Movies
Theatres

DVDs

Videogames
Sales hit new record in 2004

and the big growth media today
The Web
Online Advertising to grow 30% in 2005

Point is old media is dying and new media is taking over. Re-invest accordingly...

[edit on 16-4-2005 by sardion2000]

We will not see the end of it I dont think. Ok these big corporates can try and stop it, but NO ONE has the power to control the internet. Remember what happened when Napster went down ? 5 more were created and about within a week.

Also you have to remember that the people like the crackers, hackers, will not let this happen. After all isnt it said someone that all information should be freely available to everyone ?

No offence, but if these music companies no more exsisted, do you think there would be as many bands as there are now? NO since most are just in it for the money and not for the music.

Maybe the collapse of the music companies,. due to shareware will be a good thing.....Sorry if I have slightly strayed off topic

The only way to stop file sharing is to shut down the net, and I don't see that happening. With every new technology they create to thwart it someone will come up with either a way to beat the new tech or a new way to share files.

Remember when they made DVD's that couldn't be copied and some teenager in sweden or switzerland or someplace sat down and wrote a program in a month that overcame it?

There are people out there who LIVE for such challenges.

It won't matter anyway. Where I work people share files all the time. They burn copies of MS Office and hand them out like candy. Any program you want you probably have a friend that has a copy, or knows where to get one cheap.

Love and light,

Wupy

Whats even funyer is that one of the ways the devised to make CD's and DVD's not work on PC's was so called "cracked" by a 15 year old kid.

Turns out the kid didn't crack anything, he just accidentaly held his CTRL key when trying to play the CD and the thing started playing.

The music industry should spend the millions they spend on creating such stuppid ways of copyprotection in making actualy good music, instead of pulling some tramp like Britney Spears out of whatever sewer she came from and pumping millions into her to sell crappy albums.

[unrelated]Shareware is amazing and will stay.[/shareware]

Filesharing is amazing and will stay. It's not illegal to make cars that go above the speed limit, or that move fast enough to kill people, why should it be illegal to make software that COULD be used for illegal purposes? Like a CD burner, a tape recorder, a VCR, a video camera, and so on. As long as there are coders, and there is music, programs like Kazaa and Limewire, as well as irc and to a lesser extent AIM will be used, as well as personal websites.

Profits fell for RIAA because they come out with crap music with far too few tracks for WAY too much, and it all sounds the same (did I mention terrible?). Alternative record companies are on the rise, and profits for them have SOARED over the past years. Filesharing is a great way for them to reach an audience that they would never have dreamed of.

Grokster went to the US Supreme Court using the BetaMax defense, and it looks like they will end up winning the case.

Basically, MGM sued Grokster for making peer-to-peer software that is used by people to illegally distribute copyrighted music and movies. Grokster stated that their software has many legitimate uses and they cannot be held responsible for people who misuse their product.

The movie industry tried the same tactic against VCR makers in the early 80's. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the VCR companies.

In the Grokster case the Supreme Court hasn't made a ruling yet but the Justices made it clear they would not enact a ruling that hindered the development of new technologies.

Here's a couple articles about the case:

mail.sarai.net...
www.webpronews.com... sinessnews/wpn-45-20050328SupremeCourtToHearPeer2PeerClientGroksterCase.html
www.p2p-zone.com...
cyberlaw.stanford.edu...www.law.duke.edu... ml

That post made me smile. I always had a gut feeling that this was going to be like the BETAMAX case, including the verdict.

Most file sharing systems are closed source/proprietory code made by a (small or large) business. Imagine how file sharing will blossom if open source p2p networks came into being. It has already happened.

Openp2p

For some time I thought that Gnutella/G2 was the only open source p2p network protocol around. I was wrong.
Scrolling down the Sourceforge project page, I also noticed there are quite a few whole filesharing protocols (not just software) that are open source.

Again for clarity sake, being a shareware author myself, a brief moment of
difference...

Shareware = Software created by an individual or small business that can be used for free with either limited functionality, a time limit, or a set number of uses. Sometimes a combination.. Once a prospective user registers their shareware, serial key to unlock their purchase or the full product is mailed/emailed to them. The idea is that the program without it's key or the demo product is free to be given or downloaded to anyone else. i.e. please distribute like mad

filesharing or p2p software = A network program that instead of (but not always excluding) textual communication between users, allows for binary file distribution. p2p in particular has gained in popularity as the software uses it's own 'networking model, net language, and traffic management system' (protocol), thus allowing for things like an integrated search engine for that particular network in addition to (in some) a reverse search ability to ether browse a particular user or even visit a chat room powered by same said p2p protocol and discuss trade with other users beforehand. (WinMx comes to mind here..)

In short, p2p software can be shareware, but not all shareware are p2p!
Can anyone become a shareware/freeware author, sure; here is a helping hand.. linkwise (you are on your own as far as making your own p2p software though...)
wanna code?

Excuse my ignorance on the subject. I thought shareware and filesharing were the same.

As far as large firms being hurt by this, that too comes as no surprise. I suspect this is simply a case of growing pains for the world economy. Some tissues stretch until they break, while other tissue grows in it's place to augment and offset the loss. Instead of being shortsighted and trying to quickfix the situation by playing wack the mole with p2p authors, why not work toward the long term, try to hire them under contract, and revise the business model for their own profitablity? More progressive companies may eventually come to this conclusion, while others will simply allow themselves to stagnate through non-adaptation.

Originally posted by Crysstaafur
Instead of being shortsighted and trying to quickfix the situation by playing wack the mole with p2p authors, why not work toward the long term, try to hire them under contract, and revise the business model for their own profitablity? More progressive companies may eventually come to this conclusion, while others will simply allow themselves to stagnate through non-adaptation.

That is a fantastic idea. I'd love to see groups adopt this sort of strategy for marketing, R&D, anywhere it could be useful. I see no reason for them not to take advantage of technology that is available to them. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

yea im with you on this one, its a good idea. Has anyone else heard of the rumour that in america the music industry is tryin to pass a law or something, they will be able to scan ya computer, hack it and basically destroy any MP3's....