Bringing shareware back from the dead

Some more thoughts on shareware

Many people think shareware is free. This isn't the case, or it would be called freeware. Shareware was perhaps the original "community" activity for computer programmers. Bob would develop a small program for printing and share it with his other programmers. Lucy would develop a program for rendering images, and share that. The development took someone's time, and things were quid pro quo. People shared because they expected to get something in return. Not necessarily from a given individual, but from the pooled resources.

Much of early shareware sharing was done locally in computer clubs, on campuses, or in companies. People didn't have the Internet, and so the situation of sharing with strangers was a bit rare.

Today, many people treat shareware like freeware. That's stealing. Maybe you can't develop your own program, so sharing code in return isn't something you can do. That's a widely acknowledged issue, today. What you can do is donate a few bucks to the developer. You can also give that person a plug, give the program a free review, or in some other way pay that person back. But don't just stick your hand in the cookie jar and give nothing in return.

Another false idea that people have is if you don't buy software it must not be any good. And so, they conclude, shareware is junk. But you actually are buying it. The difference is you're buying it on the honor system and not for a set price in dollars.

Shareware and viruses

The whole thing about computer viruses is way overblown. Sadly, the typical "anti"virus program slows down your computer more than the typical virus does. A virus is a program that keeps replicating itself or a data string until it uses up your whole drive. A trojan is a program that comes in along with another program and then does something nasty on your computer.

Shareware isn't guaranteed to be clean. To protect yourself, consider the source site (if downloading). Does this site look trustworthy? If it sends out spammy red flags, don't download anything from it.

Also, consider the program. If the program is supposed to do something unethical or illegal, why would you trust someone who is offering it? Any program that allows you to hack or steal is not a program you should download anyhow. And such programs really are freeware as the developers know full well that nobody who would download such a program is going to pay anything for it. So what's their angle? Why offer it? Most likely, the program includes some kind of Trojan.

A Trojan may exist just to do harm to others for kicks. But that's not worth doing. What most likely you are getting is a Trojan that does other things such as:

• Keystroke logging. It's going to steal your passwords. And that includes your online banking.
• -mail list. It's going to steal any e-mail address it can find. Why? To generate a list to sell to spammers.
• Ad serving. It's going to serve you ads. These may be popups, popunders, or any other kind of ad that seems to be legitimately from whatever site you're visiting. But the ad
• Web visiting. Without your knowing it, the Trojan is visiting p*rn sites (and leaving a trail on your computer) for purposes of registering paid traffic.
• Relaying. The Trojan routes through your machine and a bunch of others, hiding a criminal from discovery.
• Remote siting. A criminal can operate from your machine, doing all kinds of illegal things with the trail leading back to you. Your actual innocence is not a defense; you could serve life in prison. A pretty compelling reason not to download from suspicious sites.
• Network access. If you have a home network, the Trojan can grant access to a criminal who can then use it to do illegal things. If you were irresponsible enough to download shareware onto a corporate computer, the Trojan can access your company's internal network.

As with anything else, shareware carries its risks and its rewards. And it cuts both ways, so don't cheat the developer.