Unfortunately, I do not allow users to copy and give the program to friends or sell the program. That is not just my policy, you'll find it the same throughout the publishing world. Copyright laws protect authors (and programmers) from indiscriminate sales of their works by others. The front of the manual clearly states that the DCMS is a one user program and may not be shared, copied or sold, except with my permission (as the owner of the copyright) 

The same applies to all published work. It is specifically forbidden to re-sell or even give away books, recordings or software. I know it's done all the time, but it is in violation of copyright protections afforded the authors of these works who depend on the revenue for their livelihood. Therefore, you are unlikely to get the author's assistance in depriving him of that revenue. 

With software, we have a small advantage in that we can build things into our work that discourages copyright infringement (or software piracy, as it is otherwise known) In my case, I have hard coded each user's name into the program and it cannot be changed, except with help from me. 

The same principle applies to selling the program after your are finished with it. When you purchase software, you are actually purchasing a license to use the software, since, once it is in your computer, I cannot take it back. The copyright license applies only to the original user ("one disc, one user") and cannot be transferred without, again, my permission. 

This was not intended to be a lecture. I apologize if the tone was negative, but it is the single most worrisome problem for software developers - how many bootleg copies of the program are there out there and how much business have I lost because of them? You can imagine how you would feel if you created something to sell, spent thousands of hours developing it and then found someone else profiting (and worse, denying you revenue) from your hard work by copying it.

I hope you can understand.

Back