Sharecompilation definition =========================== Copyright. ---------- This text is Copyright 1994 by Martin Kopp Frankenstr. 34 D-68259 Mannheim Germany This text may not be changed in any way. It may however be distributed in its original form at no cost. But I would prefer to be noticed about any large scale distribution. There are no fees or other constraints for the usage of the concept that is unfold in this text. Feel free to use it but if you want to reference it in a legal context you have to use the following phrase: "Sharecompilation Rev. 0.7 as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX" (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). The reason for this is explained later in this document. Title, Revision, Availability. ------------------------------ Title: The concept of a 'sharecompilation of Software' - DRAFT Revision: $VER: sharecompilation_definition 0.7 06.07.94 This is still a draft document. I'm sorry that there are still places to be filled and that some sections need to be updated. All the text will be reorganized and reformatted as necessary. BUT the legal content should be almost ready and will not be changed in a way that would not be compatible with the thoughts, concepts etc. that are presented in this revision. The english language will be improved. This text is currently available in the following languages and forms (certified by the author): English (plain text) If you want to translate it into other languages, then please contact the author. Other forms planned by the author: German (plain text), English and German hypertext versions. I promise to bring this document to Rev. 1.0. Whether I will be able to continue to develop it and whether there is interest in it etc. will be published in Rev 1.0. But I will definitely try to get someone who takes care of this if I should not be able to do it. All future revisions and any new information will be available by anonymous ftp: ftp walhalla.ira.uka.de (129.13.59.52) get /sharecompilation/info.txt This info.txt will be very short and will give you up to date information on all available files. My personal address is: Martin Kopp Frankenstr.34 D-68259 Mannheim Germany An email address for comments to the sharecompilation is: martin.kopp@ira.uka.de BUT: I am very busy at the moment and I can not promise to answer your letters or email (I do not have direkt access to this account). But every constructive comment will be taken into account. The single source for the actual version of this document is the ftp address mentioned above. I try to get someone to set up everything that is necessary to make the texts also available through some kind of 'automatic email'. See the info.txt on ftp for further information. Table of Contents. ------------------ Copyright. Title, Revision, Availability. Table of Contents. How to read this document. Short introduction: What is a sharecompilation of software? What are the advantages of a sharecompilation? Where does it come from? The analysis of the situation. The legal definitions of a sharecompilation. The details: The single 'authors' side. The details: The 'assemblers' side. The details: The 'producers' side. The details: The 'distributors' side. Example disclaimers etc. Example disclaimer for the Shareware/Freeware/XXXware 'author'. Example disclaimer for the Sharecompilation 'assembler'. Example treaty between 'assembler' and 'producer' of the sharecompilation . Example license file to be included in the compilation. Example configurations. Glossary. Additional thoughts. How to read this document: -------------------------- This is a fairly large document and not all the information provided is important to every reader. So here is something like a guided tour for different readers: Tour 1: For the 'user'. The interested 'user' of Freeware, Shareware and other software under similar legal status should read at least the "Short introduction: What is a Sharecompilation of Software?" and "What are the advantages of a sharecompilation?". This should give a reasonable overview of this concept. You, the end 'user', are essential to the success of this concept because only if you buy the sharecompilations (on CD-ROM or other storage medium) it is possible to convince all the people involved in using it. And you will get a lot advantages of it. So do not hesitate: these parts of this document are short. You might also be interested in the section "Where does it come from?" and you are invited to read all the rest! Tour 2: The extensions for the shareware 'author'. The 'author' of Freeware, Shareware and other software under similar legal status should start reading the same sections as the end 'user'. You will be introduced to the concept and the benefits that you can get (of which the simplified legal situation, the well defined low-profit situation and the broad distribution are the most prominent ones). If you are interested then read on. You can skip the "Where does it come from?" section if you are more interested in facts than gossip. Of special interest are the sections "The analysis of the situation.", "The legal definitions of a sharecompilation.", "The details: The single 'authors' side." and the "Example disclaimers etc.". Tour 3: The big tour for compilation 'assemblers'. The 'assembler' of compilations of Freeware, Shareware and other software under similar legal status should read the whole text to get all the information and to better understand all the aspects that are relevant for the different people that are involved. He might skip the "Where does it come from?" section but should take special notice of the sections "The legal definitions of a sharecompilation.", "The details: The 'assemblers' side." and "Example disclaimers et.". Tour 4: The special route for the 'producers' and 'distributors'. Anyone who might be interested in the production or distribution of a sharecompilation (which should be really interesting since you can get a compilation of distributable software nearly for free and under well defined conditions) should read the sections "Short introduction: What is a Sharecompilation of Software?", "What are the advantages of a sharecompilation?", "The legal definitions of a sharecompilation.", "The details: The 'producers / distributors' side." and "Example disclaimers etc.". Anything else would be helpful to get the whole picture. Short introduction: What is a "Sharecompilation" of Software? ------------------------------------------------------------- A sharecompilation ('share' "... 2 a: to partake of, use, experience, occupy, or enjoy with others ..." Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition) of Software - short sharecompilation - is a concept for the assembling, the production and the distribution of reasonable large arrangements of all kinds of shareware, freeware, public domain and similar software. This concept can be used for any such arrangements of data, it is platform independent, it is applicable for different volumes (the MSRP value will be defined more independent in future revisions) and different storage media. Possible candidates are compilations of shareware/freeware etc., compilations of public available data (telephone books, train/flight timetables), promotional data collections, company specific publications, etc. The main goal is to provide a concept that is fair for all the people involved. This includes the following groups, for which I want to define some names (that will be used frequently in the context of the sharecompilation definition): the 'authors' of the individual software packages the 'assemblers' of the compilation the 'producers' of the distributed storage medium the 'distributors' that sell the product to the 'users' the 'users' that want to get hold of the software The process should be as non-commercial as possible because all the software on such compilations is per definition non-commercial (shareware is non-commercial in the sense that you can decide for yourself whether to pay the fee or not AFTER you inspected the product and in accordance to the prospected usage of the program). This will also help to solve many of the problems with disclaimers, that restrict the distribution to be non-commercial or limit the amount that can be asked for the medium. To reach these goals I have developed the following main principals: - The 'assembler' (the one who puts all the data together) should work on a non-commercial basis, in the spirit of either Freeware or Shareware. So he (or she) can get the recognition for the hard labor that the assembling of a large compilation demands. He may also request a small donation or fee if the 'users'are satisfied with the result - just as the programmers do for their hard work. - The 'assembler' should be separate from the 'producer' (the one who actually invests in the production of the CD or whatever storage medium is distributed). - The 'distributor' may be the same as the 'producer', but this is not necessary. - After a well defined period of exclusive production (to protect the interests of the first 'investor') other 'producers' may join. This should result in some kind of competition to keep the 'producers' from raising too much profit. - A fixed maximum suggested retail price (preferable less than US $13 or DM 20 see the "Details..." sections) should be defined by the 'assembler' and has to be accepted by the 'producers'. This should prevent the 'distributors'to raise their stakes. This document defines necessary and optional parts of the sharecompilation concept and I propose these definitions as a new standard - the sharecompilation standard. The full details (and there are plenty of them) of the concept are revealed later in this document. Since there might be other people (hopefully not) defining similar concept it is necessary to reference a sharecompilation of the kind that is described throughout this document in the following way: "Sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX" (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). Such a reference is inevitable not only to prevent confusion but because this document can thereby be used in legal texts as disclaimers, treaties, etc. like for instance the GNU public license. What are the advantages of a sharecompilation? ---------------------------------------------- The main advantage is a low price of the distributed compilation which in turn results in: - broader distribution of the compilation because most people prefer cheaper things and some people just do not have the money for the expensive ones. - more happiness among the Freeware 'authors' of programs or data on the compilation because they can reach more people. - more happiness among the Shareware (Giftware etc.) 'authors' of programs (or data) that are part of the distribution because they will not only reach more people, but these people will be more inclined to pay the fee (the gift etc.) that was requested, due to the lower price they had to pay for the data in the first place. - more happiness among the 'assemblers' of such compilations because software that is defined to be distributable on sharecompilations as defined by this document makes it easier for them to verify the restrictions that result out of the copyright and the disclaimer. - more happiness for the 'producers' and 'distributors' (at least in a long term evaluation) because cheaper means higher volume, higher volume means more CD-ROM drives, more CD-ROM drives mean higher volume ... And the fact that they get the compilation nearly free should be realistically seen as giving biscuits to the children. And there is a defined base of discussion when they speak with potential 'assemblers' - more happiness among the 'users' for there will be more freely distributable software because some 'authors' stopped working on projects or stopped publishing them when they realized that there are too many people making too many profit of their work. Now these 'authors' can include the right to distribute their software as part of a sharecompilation (a defined by this document - with or without a maximum suggested retail price for the medium) very easy in their disclaimers. So everybody should be more happy with the concept of a sharecompilation! Hey! Let us be more realistic! There are individuals that will not be happy: - 'assemblers' of compilations who want to make a high profit out of the work of others (The labor that has to be invested into the assembling of the compilation is approximately equal to the labor that has to be invested into one or two of the thousands of programs which make up the compilation. So why should this single person (or group) get rich while all the others get nothing?) - 'producers' and 'distributors' with the same intention! But who cares - really? If you like this concept there is still one problem: There has to be a way of knowing whether a product obeys these rules or not. So I created the name sharecompilation to describe this concept and any user can verify very easy whether the product is a sharecompilation of this sort by looking for a reference on the package like: "Sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX" (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). where the Rev. X.X stands for the revision number of this document and the MSRP XX.XX defines the maximum suggested retail price that the assembler and the producer agreed on in their contract. This document and all new revisions will be published on various sources like the Internet. The first official sharecompilation will be the CD "Meeting Pearls Volume 1" that was managed from Angela Schmidt, Neu-Ulm, Germany with a MSRP/MEVP US $ 13 / DM 19.80. That's it so far, I hope you like it. Any constructive comments may be send to the author. (I try to get an email account for this baby, see the section "Title, Revision, Availability." at the beginning of this document for details. Where does it come from? ------------------------ This concept emerged out of my frustration that there were compilations of so called freely distributable software that had some strange characteristics. These compilations - CD-ROMs to be more concrete - had a compilation copyright on them so that you could not legally copy them to your hard disk or to a streamer tape (in some cases even the copying of parts of the compilation was forbidden). The reason was that the 'producers' did not want that anybody could copy the content of the CD because they would loose a whole lot of money in this case. Why could they loose money on disks that were 99,99% full with material that they did not had the copyright of? (Strange, but this will be explained later in this document). These CD-ROMs had a price tag ranging from 50 DM to more than 150 DM, which I found to be a further reason of frustration. Many discussions - not only on the internet - were held on this topic. And there was the next great reason to be frustrated: Some people even supported the idea that the compilation copyright of the 'producer'/'distributor' had to be obeyed at all costs while the copyright and the disclaimers of the individual software pieces that - in many cases - prohibited the commercial distribution was named an insult to the idea of freely distributable software. Really strange - isn't it? Without these 'authors' there would be nothing to be distributed at all! STOP! No more flames! Let us be more constructive! Let us analyze the facts. The analysis of the situation. ------------------------------ I tried to sort out the individual facts that made up this mess and tried to be fair to all of the people involved. In a discussion (some would call it a monologue) at a meeting in Karlsruhe I gathered information from different fractions, combined it with my own knowledge of the subject, tried to structure all of it and found the following things to be important: - To assemble a compilation of software the size of a complete CD-ROM is hard labor if the resulting product should uphold a high quality standard. - Therefore it is necessary to provide the people that do this job with some kind of compensation (or they will not carry on with their work). - High quality standard means to meet as much criteria as possible from the following (unequivocal incomplete) list. All material should be - free of viruses or equal nasties. - only included if the inclusion does not violate the respective copyright. - the most recent version of the software. - ready to run from the CD-ROM. - organized in a way that allows easy access. - accompanied by a description. - complete with all files. - easy to install on your hard disk. (Even if it is possible to use it from the CD-ROM.) - The production of a reasonable quantity of CD-ROMs and the distribution of them costs money that someone has to invest in a project that might fail. - Therefore it is necessary to give these people a kind of compensation (or they will not continue to invest their money in such projects). - For many different reasons most of the people who do a good job in assembling these compilations do not have enough money to risk a full production run. - For many different reasons most of the people, who have the money for a full blown production run, do not have the knowledge, the resources, the time or the personnel to assemble a high quality software compilation. - Only a full blown production run (of about 1000 to 5000 pieces or more) results in a low price for the single CD-ROM (mainly because the process that is called "mastering" costs a lot of money and has to be done whether you produce 100 or 10000 CDs). This is more or less also true for any other possible storage medium. - You need a well developed distribution network to sell the CDs (or whatever you distribute) as fast as possible to get back the money that you invested. - Only a low price combined with a high quality compilation will result in a strong demand for the product so that great quantity of disks can be sold in a short time. - The 'authors' of the individual software pieces (whether shareware, freeware, public domain or similar software) want a fast and wide spread distribution of their respective work. - Most of these 'authors' do not want that the medium on which the software is distributed costs too much. There are some that do not want anybody to make profit of their hard labor, some who think that a high price may prevent many people to get their hands on their software, some who fear that 'users' may not pay their shareware fee considering they already paid much for the storage medium and some others that do not like it for whatever reason they may have. - Most 'users' do not want that the medium on which the compilation is distributed costs too much. There are some (quite a lot) who like to have money and therefore do have objections to give it away whereas some others want to buy more than one compilation but do not have enough money and so on and so on ... - Some 'authors' do not want their work to be distributed if there are too many people making profit of it and stop publishing their programs if their disclaimers are not followed. - Some 'users' regret the fact that some 'authors' stop to write or publish good software. - Great quantities of CD-ROM disks can only be sold if there are many CD-ROM drives to use them. - Great quantities of CD-ROM drives can only be sold if they are cheap enough and if there is a large selection of cheap software titles. As a conclusion everybody (or at least most of the people) would be happy to have high quality software compilations at a low price with a reasonable compensation for all the people that work hard or invest money, while the copyright of all the individual 'authors' should be obeyed to keep them writing new software for the next compilation. OK - that's it! Simple! A solution came to mind and I presented it to some of the people at the meeting in Karlsruhe. Most of them were quite exited (in a positive way). Here it is: The concept of a sharecompilation: The legal definitions of a sharecompilation. -------------------------------------------- This and the following sections "The details..." cover the essential definitions that have to be followed if you want to reference your work to the sharecompilation concept defined by this document. All the constraints, all limits and all definitions have to be obeyed. There is still enough room in form of optional parts that can be customized. But even if you break one rule only, you cannot reference your work to be related to: "Sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX". (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). This is essential because all the people involved rely on and trust in these definitions and part of them even use them in the legal sections of their work. (The MSRP might be written MEVP which is a german related equivalent). --- So PLEASE be precise! --- (Part of this information was already presented earlier in the document as a general introduction and motivation but in this context it is presented as definitions!) The concept is build around several main definitions that apply to all the people involved (Special details for each group are placed in the following sections): - The 'assembler' of the compilation is not the 'producer' of it. (Exception: The person that is both 'assembler' and 'producer' has to separately follow all the respective rules!) - Anyone who is willing to produce the compilation under the restrictions of the 'assembler' has to get the chance to do it. But the 'assembler' can choose which one gets the first license (that gets a special treatment - see below). - Restrictions can be, for example, the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP), the form of the distribution, the quantity etc..- Restrictions are not allowed regarding the domain of the distribution (this could otherwise lead to a kind of monopoly), the time span in which the product may be sold (in contrast to the production time span which might be restricted) or any personal objections against the 'producer'. No lower limit can be defined for the retail price. If someone wants to produce it at a lower price than the MSRP he or she can do it! - For all people involved there is an upper limit for the MSRP (see glossary) of US $ 13 (DM 20) for a production of 3000 CD-ROMS (If the first sharecompilation proofs this amount to be too low or too high, then I will update it and give the reason for the change!). Other storage media and higher/lower volumes should have respective equal MSRPs. IMPORTANT: I will try to give more precise information on this. I will ensure that all 'old' references mentioned in programs will be covered by any changes that might happen. This refinement is necessary, because there might be low volume sharecompilations etc. and I have to sort out all the factors. Probably there will be a table of references. - All restrictions have to be equal for all producers! Exceptions are: the 'first producer protection period' term, presented below, as well as increasing the production quantities and changes of the MSRP due to general changes of the production costs (higher volumes result in a lower price; after a given period the production costs might generally be lower, which should be reflected by the lowering of the MSRP). - The first 'producer' of a new compilation may get a small period of exclusive production to compensate for the risk that is involved in it (should not be more than 3 months) - The 'producers' and the 'distributors' get their compensation from selling the product. - Every 'producer' has to pay a fee once to get the compilation and the license to produce it directly from the 'assembler'. This fee is only meant to prevent the 'assembler' to be overrun by people who want to get the compilation and do not intend to produce it. The fee should be small (less than US $ 60 or DM 100) and preferable be paid in the form of a small quantity (10 to 30 pieces) of the product (CD-ROM, tape or whatever storage medium is used for the distribution). - Every 'producer' has to produce a new ISO-Image (or whatever 'mastering' process is needed for the chosen storage medium) for his production. (This should be clear because the license file has to be updated - see below) - The compensation of the 'assembler' results out of the fee mentioned above and anything that he asks the 'users' of the compilation for and that these 'users' are willing to give to him. There should not be any kind of pressure on the 'users' to do so (besides the usual PLEASE). He can only ask for compensation relating to the assembling of the compilation - not for the content of it! - There has to be a reference to this document in the defined standard form (see comments in the 'Details...' sections. - There can be no restrictions on the private use of the compilation and the copying of parts or the whole compilation for private use besides the restrictions of the individual copyrighted software that is part of the compilation. - A 'license' text has to be included as part of the compilation with the addresses of all the actual legitimated producers, the address of the assembler and his or her explicit statement that these people may produce the compilation (See the examples at the end of the document!) The details: The single 'authors' side. --------------------------------------- Any 'author' of a Freeware, Shareware or similar product (program or data) who agrees to these definitions and who wants to take advantage of this new distribution scheme can add the following lines to his or her disclaimer: "This program may be distributed as part of a sharecompilation Rev.X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX. The author agrees to the legal terms that are defined by this document." (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). Naturally you have to claim legally a copyright on the data/program because without that you are not entitled to make any restrictions. The MSRP can only be an upper limit! If an assembler chooses a lower or equal MSRP he might include your software otherwise not. There may be other terms in your disclaimer, as long as none of them negates any of the definitions. There are example disclaimers at the end of this document. Your benefit of including this line is that a potentially interested 'assembler' of such a compilation can easily verify your consent. This makes it more likely that your program is included but gives you the security of knowing what all these people will do with your work. The details: The 'assemblers' side. ----------------------------------- Any 'assembler' of a sharecompilation that follows the definitions of a sharecompilation as presented in this document has to include the following lines in his disclaimer. "This compilation adheres to the definitions of a sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX". (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). Of course you have to claim a compilation copyright on your collection of data. There are example disclaimers at the end of this document. Whether this compilation copyright is legal or not should not be of your concern. If it is not, then every CD-ROM or other large collection of data has no such copyright and everyone can copy it (whether it is a disk from Fred Fish or a part of the internet.) All the general definitions have to be obeyed! You will have to have a treaty with every single 'producer'. There is an example treaty at the end of this document. Your benefit of including this line is that a potentially interested 'producer' knows exactly what this is all about. Furthermore you can include all the program or data that is released for the inclusion in sharecompilations as long as your MSRP is less or equal to the given MSRP. and you can easily verify the authors consent. If you plan to produce a sharecompilation you might be interested in contacting: Stefan Ossowski Schatztruhe Gesellschaft für Software mbH Veronikastraße 33 D-45131 Essen Germany He is the producer of the first official sharecompilation named "Meeting Pearls Volume 1" Copyright by Angela Schmidt, Neu-Ulm, Germany, and accepted the conditions with MSRP US $12 (DM 19,80) and these two, Stefan Ossowski and Angela Schmidt, are therefore proof that there is interest in this concept. He also declared in principle his willingness and interest to produce other CD-ROMs under the definitions of a sharecompilation as described in this document. BUT, there is no guarantee whether he will produce it and, hopefully, there are other producers! IMPORTANT: Only assemble a compilation after you made sure that there is a 'producer' interested. (There is no guarantee that someone will produce it if no one sees a market for it - no matter how good it might be!) If I get notice of other potential producers, I will try to present them in future revisions of this document. It is possible that there is a group of assemblers. In this case there has to be one legal representative or all the names have to be included at every instance where the 'assembler' has to be mentioned (Copyright, License etc.) The 'assembler' has to ensure that the best efforts are used to check the whole compilation to be free of viruses, that every single copyright text has been paid attention to and that the software is installed completely [and directly usable, if this is appropriate]. Be especially careful with pictures (No pictures of single persons without their explicit agreement) and sound and music files (almost all of them have copyright on them and cannot be included!) A note has to be included about shareware programs and shareware fees in the documentation. The 'assembler' provides the compilation on a transfer medium on which he and the 'producer' agreed on (see example treaty at the end of this document). The compilation has to be ready for production in a form that both agreed on. The 'producer' has to cover all the needed expenses of the 'assembler' (like telephone, medium, postage etc.) The 'assembler' has to provide the 'producer' with reasonable information about his expenses and should announce any higher amounts to the 'producer'. The 'assembler' commits himself to provide a given amount of data of high quality (as defined in this document in the section "The analysis of the situation."). Normally the storage medium should be nearly full (this might not be true if a sharecompilation was planned for a CD-ROM and gets distributed on DAT-Tape, for example). The details: The 'producers' side. ---------------------------------- Any 'producer' of a sharecompilation that follows the definitions of a sharecompilation as presented in this document has to include the following lines in his documentation and clearly visible on the package: "This compilation adheres to the definitions of a sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX". (See the glossary for more information on the MSRP which might be updated in a compatible manner in future revisions). The 'producer' has to ensure that a notice that explains the shareware concept and the consequences thereof is clearly visible on the package. The suggested retail price has to be clearly visible on the package. The 'producer' gets his authorization through the content of a License file that is part of the compilation. The 'producer' has to ensure that the 'user' can estimate how much data is included in the compilation. This information has to be clearly visible on the package. The 'assembler' provides the compilation on a transfer medium on which he and the 'producer' agreed on (see example treaty at the end of this document). The compilation has to be ready for production in a form that both agreed on. The 'producer' has no right to alter any part of the content of the compilation without approval by the 'assembler'. The 'producer' is responsible for the generating of an ISO-Image (or any other 'mastering' process that is needed). The 'producer' has to cover all the needed expenses of the 'assembler' (like telephone, medium, postage etc.). The 'assembler' has to provide the 'producer' with reasonable information about his expenses and should announce any higher amounts to the 'producer'. If I get notice of potential 'producers', I will try to present them in future revisions of this document. The benefit for the 'producer' is obvious: He can get the complete compilation ready for production under precisely defined legal conditions nearly for free. The details: The 'distributors' side. ------------------------------------- *** Sorry not yet written in this draft version of this document. Will be added as soon as possible! The benefit of the 'distributor' is, that his customer knows what he gets and that the name sharecompilation will be seen as a sign of quality for a fair price (hopefully). Example disclaimers etc. ------------------------ Example disclaimer for the Shareware/Freeware/XXXware 'author'. *** Sorry not yet written in this draft version of this document. Will be added as soon as possible! Example disclaimer for the Sharecompilation 'assembler'. You have to replace the [] parts in the following text. -------------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------- This software compilation is Copyright [year] by [assembler.name], [assembler.city], [assembler.country] - All Rights Reserved. This compilation adheres to the definitions of a sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP XX.XX. The copyright of the individual programs or data belongs to the respective authors. Under the following conditions it is legal to copy the compilation itself: Private: As long as everything happens for free and non-commercial (see below), the compilation can be copied as whole or only parts of it as often as you want. This means that you can make private copies on DAT-tape, other streamers, hard disks, piles of disks etc.. Preferable there should be a notice about the source or - in the case of near complete copies - all the original Readme files should be enclosed. The copyright of the individual programs or data and all their restrictions have to be heeded absolutely. This includes shareware payments, as they are requested. The purchase or the legal acquisition of this compilation does not include the compensation of the individual share fees. Commercial: This compilation may be reproduced as whole or only parts of it only under the following conditions: If only single programs or data will be redistributed and the copyright of every single respective author is followed in every single case!Furthermore every single software package must include a note about the source in the form "These files were taken from the [sharecompilation.name], Copyright [year] by [assembler.name], [assembler.city], [assembler.country].". or If the whole compilation has been received directly from the address mentioned below and all the respective requirements were adhered to. As a proof of the legitimacy a file named "License" exists including the names of all actual legitimated producers plus a declaration of consent and the address of [assembler.name] where anybody with a reasonable suspicion can verify this information. If anyone thinks that there is a market for this CD, for example in the back of Mongolia, please contact the same address. In general: Neither [assembler.name] nor the legal producer of the original unchanged [sharecompilation.name] [CD,DAT, etc.] that was received from [assembler.name] take any warranty or responsibility for any kind of damage that may result through the usage of this compilation. Best efforts were used to check the whole compilation to be free of viruses, that every single copyright text has been paid attention to and that the software was installed completely [and directly usable]. In the case that - despite this care - any of the above mentioned points has not been reached it is not possible to take any responsibility. Should there be a case in which the copyright was unintentionally violated, the victim should please get in contact with the address mentioned below, so that for further distributions the damage can be limited as much as possible. Thank you. In the case that one or more terms of this disclaimer might not be legal in one or more countries, then these terms are defined to be not valid for these countries, but the remaining terms stay intact and similar or equivalent legal terms to the ones that are void should be accepted. The file [ReadmeFirst] should be read before usage of this CD. Name and address of the representative: [assembler.name] [assembler.address] -------------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------- Example treaty between 'assembler' and 'producer' of the sharecompilation. *** Sorry not yet written in this draft version of this document. Will be added as soon as possible! Example license file to be included in the compilation. You have to replace the [] parts in the following text. -------------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------- [assembler.city], [assembler.country], [date] Licence ======= This compilation adheres to the definitions of a sharecompilation Rev. X.X as defined by Martin Kopp with MSRP US $13. Herewith I issue the licence to produce the [sharecompilation.name] in arbitrary quantities - as long as a good readable "recommended retail price" of less than or equal to [the defined suggested retail price] (or an equal amount in another currency) is placed on the packaging - to [producer.name] [producer.address] Furthermore I issue a licence to anyone to copy the compilation non-commercially, as long as nothing of the enclosed data is changed or the conditions in the file [Legal.Readme] are obeyed. [assembler.name] [assembler.address] -------------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------- Demo configurations ------------------- *** Sorry not yet written in this draft version of this document. Will be added as soon as possible! Glossary -------- 'assembler' (the one who puts all the data together) 'author' (the one who writes or generates the individual software packages) 'distributor' (the one who sells the product to the 'users') MSRP (The Maximum Suggested Retail Price that was defined by the 'author' for the software package, defined by the 'assembler' for the compilation and that the 'producer' agreed to accept in the process of negotiating with the 'assembler'). References to this revision of the document regard this MSRP as defined for a CD-ROM production of 3000 pieces. I plan to make this either obsolete or more independant from the produced quantity or media. 'producer' (the one who actually invests in the production of the CD or whatever storage medium is distributed) 'share' "... 2 a: to partake of, use, experience, occupy, or enjoy with others ..." Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition 'user' (the one who want to get hold of the software) Additional thoughts ------------------- There are many of them, they will be presented in the future revisions. Thank you, for your patience! THE END.