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Xorcist
26-11-2002, 11:14 AM
This topic is in specific reference to "selling" software. How exactly would Borland know if a program was compiled (or for that matter developed) in a version of Delphi that was not meant to create commercial products. Such as student editions, personal editions, etc.

On the same note, does the above pertain to development? or just compilation? Say I create a sweet product everyone wants to buy in a student edition of the software... but have a friend compile it under his professional edition, is it sellable then?

I'm not quite understanding of how and or why Borland chooses this path when Microsoft fully allows the sale of any program written under any student edition of their development environments. I personally don't have thousands of dollars to shell out to get a commercial development license for Delphi (I could barely afford the student edition). Nor would I wish to spend such money in order to create and sell the cheesey shareware applications I do, that will obviously never rake in as much money as I spent to get the license to sell them!

Doesn't Borland realize they have a HUGE personal user base compared to their commercial user base. Or could it be they do...

TheLion
26-11-2002, 11:57 AM
I agree with Xorcist, but I have no idea how they can see that. My guess is that somewhere in the application it states the serial number of your application and by that they can see if it was compiled with a registered version, however when you compile it at a friends version they can't see that either... The thing is (I think) that they look at the publisher/creator you state in your application and then look if they are registered...

I think it would be a good idea that borland would publish a delphi version like the personal at a price of about $300,-- and then sell it with a publish license, so small companies or hobbiests that would like to make a dime can use Borland Delphi to do so. I don't think any starting company would like to buy the Delphi Pro or Delphi Enterprise edition since that would cost too much, so they look at cheaper compiler, so my point is (I do have a point, I think) that more companies and people would start using Delphi if they made a cheaper version that would allow publishing...
Borland could even advertise with it, Shockwave obligates you to put the logo in the credits (or anywhere else) in your application, so Borland could do that too, with a cheap version, so you would pay the rest with advertisement!

Zanthos
26-11-2002, 09:11 PM
I wonder if giving the executable away as a free download then charging for the other files needed with the application, I haven't checked the license agreement, but there'll be something guarding against that, I imagine... :)

Philth
27-11-2002, 03:18 AM
Well, the Personal license says "no compensation relating to compiled program..." (Thats not word for word, but you get the point) meaning you can't get around it by selling a pair of dirty socks for $30 and toss in a free CDROM of your latest game..

Really, though .. If you DO create something worth selling, that people would want to actually buy, you'll know it. And when that happens, you can look around on EBay or other auction sites for a used copy, or someones extra copy from their dot.bomb .. Or just look for a good sale.. Professional Version which allows you to sell can be found for around $800 .. A far cry from "thousands of dollars" .. Which is STILL a lot for 99.999% of us regardless, but it'll be paid off quickly ... (unless your program really IS total crap !)

As for giving the source to someone to compile who has it.. I have no idea how that would work.. Common sense is yeah, you could do it.. But I really don't know .. You could go as far as having people write checks to the person and him to complete the legality of the deal, and then have the person just give you the money after the transaction and it'd be a clean deal.. But bleh. Dunno if i'd wanna try that.

As for them finding out, im sure the executable will have all info of where the program came from somehow .. Who knows if they have a bunch of trained monkies downloading shareware all day going through headers of applications to see that they're getting their share .. Or perhaps they just trust people .. Or rely on some other 3rd party watchdog group that does this for not only them, but other application develpment houses ..

You could go ahead and find out for us if you'd like .. ;) I've always wondered this myself. Luckily i've never made anything worth selling.. It's more of a mind exercise for me than anything else..