I suspect not, but I am only guessing. However, it reminds me to
mention a little scam I have going to get that discount and free edu
softwares. I sign up with the community college each fall and take a
single course to get the student card. This year I am taking "Astral
Projection - A New Reality" taught by Mistress Starfire. Looks like
all I will have to do to pass the course is look really, really stoned
and nod knowingly to everything the Mistress says. Sweet.
Are there any openings in that class?
WSFTP is a great freeware program. However, it is only provided as
freeware to selected groups of people. one of which is students, etc.
and another is home users.
"LICENSE
Ipswitch grants you a non-exclusive license to use the Software free
of charge if a) you are a student, faculty member or staff member of
an educational institution (K-12, junior college, college or
university); b) you are a United States federal, state or local
government employee; or c) your use of the Software is exclusively at
home for non-commercial purposes. Government contractors are not
considered government employees for the purposes of this Agreement. If
you do not meet the requirements for free use of the Software, you may
use the Software for up to fifteen days for the purpose of evaluating
whether to purchase a license to the commercial version of WS_FTP."
It is freeware as directed by the authors. A few years back it was
common to see freeware programs available to everyone except for any
sort of military usage. Obviously the authors wishes were not to
contribute to the military in any way, but to make the program
available for everyone else.
WSFTP and Star Office both seem to offer the programs as freeware to
selected groups in hopes that the experience will prompt them to
consider upgrading to the non-freeware versions. I've had no freeware
SS officers show up to check my student ID. They did not even ask
where I was going to school. It is an honesty thing entirely. I'm
also a home user of course.
These are all freeware programs as defined by the license agreements.
They may not be freeware to everyone, but that's the breaks sometimes.
The invisible break point is somewhere out there where the license
stifles the ability for the program to be useful to a nominal amount
of people, such as "people born in 1947 who are named Elroy." And even
this select group will consider the program freeware, although it
probably won't pass the mustard here <G>. That is simply too narrow
to be useful to the group an users here at large.
As always there are individual opinions and nailing down a concise set
of conditions for the group definition is elusive. WSFTP is listed on
the PW page as it should be, even though people who use a computer in
a library are excluded by the license agreement. Home users who might
use it to update a commercial site are also specifically excluded in
the license. I don't consider past decisions as binding. They were
simply past decisions about a particular point and it is very doubtful
that they were unanimous.
I'm thankful for freewares with little or no restrictions, but I
cannot turn a blind eye to programs like WSFTP, which are great
programs available to large targeted audiences. It obviously made the
cut even though not everyone can use it freely.
A license that allows students and faculties to use the program freely
affects a very large group of people and this passes my muster. I have
no qualms with the discussion of such programs. I think the
limitations in the license should be pointed out with prominence
though to avoid confusion and lengthy debates.
It's been awhile. I'm reading in, but still on a sabbatical <G>. I
hope to return on the project I began and as a daily guest here pretty
soon. The weather is SO gorgeous, and like Henk I think I might have
been spending a bit too much time on the puter and not enough with my
loved ones. It's nice to take time to smell the, uh, ragweed and
peacefully ponder life in a more general sense. It is refreshing and
envigorating. This is the core I'm drawn to though and within a matter
of time I'll begin anew.
