Legalities of Distributing Discontinued Freeware

aimeeandbeatles

aimeeandbeatles

watermelon
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
20,112
Suppose you downloaded a really good freeware program. The license doesn't say anything about redistributing it, just not to decompile it.
If it was discontinued, or the site goes down, would it be okay to upload it online for a few friends to download?

Just wondering. :confused:
 
Thank you.
 
Padma said:
If you are not given explicit rights to "share" it, it is illegal. Period.

Just because the original site goes down, or the authors "disappear", doesn't mean they don't still hold copyright.
Click to expand...

Ya unless you are given explicit rights to distribute copies you don't have rights to distribute. Copyrights don't go away just because the owner stops distribution. Perhaps you should try and get in contact with the owner or reread the license and see if you can find somewhere that gives you permission.
 
I guess another factor is that you're from Canada they might be more relaxed on their copyright laws. I don't know if works copyrighted in the US are automatically copyright in Canada or not either.
 
Doesnt mean that its not copyrighted. The author might still not want unauthorized distribution. Hence why most readmes or EULAs contain a bit about redistribution. If the author wanted you to distribute it, the Author would say that that is what he/she allows you to do.
 
True but really it goes down to what rights are specifically granted to the end user in the distribution. You can't legally assume any rights as the end user, because it's only up to the copyright owner to release those rights.

warpus said:
Why would it be illegal to distribute freeware? Freeware sort of implies that it can be redistributed legally.
Click to expand...
 
True but really it goes down to what rights are specifically granted to the end user in the distribution. You can't legally assume any rights as the end user, because it's only up to the copyright owner to release those rights.

Just releasing something is technically copyrighting it, but that might not stand up in court.


warpus said:
Why would it be illegal to distribute freeware? Freeware sort of implies that it can be redistributed legally.
Click to expand...
 
warpus said:
Why would it be illegal to distribute freeware? Freeware sort of implies that it can be redistributed legally.
Click to expand...

freeware implies free of cost and nothing more(unless otherwise stated in the license). There's a few reasons why you might want to give away something for free, but don't want to let other's distribute.

for example Advertisement dollars that the author makes from having you visit his site. He doesn't want others to distribute so he can control when and what gets distributed, perhaps he doesn't want to let other's distribute so that he can ensure people only get updated versions of software from his site instead of people getting older buggy code from others.
 
Anyone got an example of a piece of freeware that has limitations on non-profit distribution?

I'm not an linux/open-source freak, so I could be behind the times when it comes to freeware, but I can't imagine why anyone would make their product freeware and then have restrictions on distribution that doesn't result in profit. The only type of restriction I've seen on freeware is on usage.. (ie. you may use this for free in a non-corporate setting), and I suppose that has implications on distribution, but still.
 
In what sense is it "freeware" - was it actually described as freeware? Or do you just mean you could download for free?

Being free to download doesn't entail distribution rights (otherwise people would be able to copy all sorts of things, like webpages and images). Although I must say, I do find it very annoying when people don't bother to put a licence on things - chances are they'd be fine with redistribution, but you have no way of knowing.
 
warpus said:
Anyone got an example of a piece of freeware that has limitations on non-profit distribution?
Click to expand...

apparently whatever it is aimeeandbeatles wants. I don't recall any that expressly prohibited it, but for it to be legal they have to give you expressed permission to redistribute.

I'm not an linux/open-source freak, so I could be behind the times when it comes to freeware, but I can't imagine why anyone would make their product freeware and then have restrictions on distribution that doesn't result in profit. The only type of restriction I've seen on freeware is on usage.. (ie. you may use this for free in a non-corporate setting), and I suppose that has implications on distribution, but still.[/QUOTE]

freeware(free as in price but closed source) is mostly a windows phenomenon. all OS apps allow distribution and since most linux apps are OS most linux apps can be freely distributed(as long as you give the source code for any modifications).
 
Shadylookin said:
apparently whatever it is aimeeandbeatles wants. I don't recall any that expressly prohibited it, but for it to be legal they have to give you expressed permission to redistribute.

I'm not an linux/open-source freak, so I could be behind the times when it comes to freeware, but I can't imagine why anyone would make their product freeware and then have restrictions on distribution that doesn't result in profit. The only type of restriction I've seen on freeware is on usage.. (ie. you may use this for free in a non-corporate setting), and I suppose that has implications on distribution, but still.

freeware(free as in price but closed source) is mostly a windows phenomenon. all OS apps allow distribution and since most linux apps are OS most linux apps can be freely distributed(as long as you give the source code for any modifications).
Click to expand...
But that *is* a limitation on distribution. They GPL can only enforce this limitation because, by default under copyright law, you have no right to distribute it. Even if you got it for free. So, this is an example of something that is free to download, but has limitations on distribution. Similarly "freeware" closed-source applications still often have restrictions, such as not making modifications.

However, I'd argue that the term "freeware" tends to apply to applications that can be freely redistributed (without modification, at least) - so as I said earlier, this just gets us to whether what the OP referred to was actually labelled as "freeware", or whether he just means "it was free to download".
 
Thanks everyone. I'm gonna check the licenses again.
Who reads the licenses anyways? LMAO.
 
mdwh said:
But that *is* a limitation on distribution. They GPL can only enforce this limitation because, by default under copyright law, you have no right to distribute it. Even if you got it for free. So, this is an example of something that is free to download, but has limitations on distribution. Similarly "freeware" closed-source applications still often have restrictions, such as not making modifications.

However, I'd argue that the term "freeware" tends to apply to applications that can be freely redistributed (without modification, at least) - so as I said earlier, this just gets us to whether what the OP referred to was actually labelled as "freeware", or whether he just means "it was free to download".
Click to expand...

hey there's always the BSD license(though technically still limited because you have to repost the copyright notice)

but ya freeware is an umbrella term and the only way to know if you have the right to distribute is to check the license. Even worse is that it's an umbrella term for a lot of windows developers that release under their own personalized licenses. So you have to read the whole thing instead of just knowing the rules because it's release under a generic license like gpl, bsd, apache, mit, or mpl,
 
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