Matt Kirby - i do see your point about people making money selling other people's stuff, but are they really muppets?? i mean if they disclaim to the public that their disk contains, amongst other things, some freeware software - surely it's the people that buy this stuff instead of as you say downloading it for free that are the real Muppets!!!??? The ebay-seller is not really affecting the author as he/she wouldn't reap any financial gain anyway - the only people losing out are the dumbo's buying the disk. And perhaps they're not even losing out cos if they didn't realise the software was easily downloadable for free then they're probably quite happy to pay for it :roll:

the ongoing discussion about software piracy/cracking/unlawfully distributing is a very interesting one as i allways find i sit on the fence -sure i can see the fustration of the hardworking developer - i can also see the enjoyment of the young kid "kazzaa -ing " a copy of XP professional for free, that would have cost him loads, only to go out of date within a few years anyway. Surely the majority of money made is by business's buying legit copies with a licence?

also -out of interest, the T &C that you place on your software that you don't want it distributed - - does this constitute a legally binding disclaimer or simply a polite request that you hope people respect :?:

- - maverick - i've just checked out the link you posted and it looks like this person is only selling shareware or freeware programs - if that's the case then they're not really ripping people off are they????

i'm a software developer myself and if i produced a program that i was prepared to release free into the world then it wouldn't really bother me if i saw it for sale on e-bay or any where else for that matter...

thats like a chef producing a really cool Salmon pasta dish for a charity dinner then seeing Jamie Oliver selling it in his Christmas 'Cockney boy Christmas cook book'!!!, and getting a right beef on about the whole thing! :!:

Unless i'm way off the mark???