The Association of Shareware Professionals ("ASP") Statement of Purpose of the ASP: The ASP is an association for shareware authors with the general goals of educating shareware authors and distributors and the public, setting standards, sharing resources and information among members. Definition of "Shareware": For the ASP's purposes, "Shareware" is software which meets the following general criteria: - It is a "complete" program, ie: it performs all of the major functions normally expected of a program of its type, unlike a "commercial demo" which normally has a major function disabled. (The distinction is sometimes a judgment call, and the ASP will have a procedure for arriving at such a judgment if necessary.) - It is copyrighted (as opposed to uncopyrighted software which is "public domain"). - It may be copied for others to try out, subject to copying restrictions which the author may or may not choose to require, such as the following: - Registration fees may be required from the user as a condition of continued use of the program beyond a trial usage period. Not requiring such a fee or requiring fees only from specific types of users, such as businesses and government, but not individuals, does not disqualify a program from being considered "shareware". - Compliance with specified standards may be required from anyone copying the program for a fee or in conjunction with any business enterprise. Membership Criteria: Membership is open to programmers who are authors of at least one "nontrivial" program (in the judgment of a Membership Committee) which is currently marketed and supported as shareware, who agree to abide by standards adopted by the association, and whose membership, in the judgment of the Membership Committee, will not be detrimental to the goals or reputation of the ASP. Access to CompuServe is not required, but it is anticipated that this is where much of the decision-making process will take place because of relative ease of access. We encourage those who do not wish to use CompuServe or cannot get access to it to join the ASP anyway. Communication will also be accomplished via newsletters and possibly by other means. ASP Membership Requirements: These requirements are followed by all members of the ASP. When accepted as a member you will be required to abide by them. These requirements apply to ALL programs you produce which are distributed as shareware (even if the ASP name or the word shareware are not used). By applying you are confirming that all your shareware programs meet these requirements. The one program you submit is evaluated for the non-triviality test (which only applies to that program) and standards of professionalism (which apply to all programs). The following are the general standards that ALL ASP authors (full members) have agreed to follow. Each was passed by at east a 2/3 vote of those members voting and is binding on all authors. They consist of a support policy, a policy on payments, a policy on no crippled software, an Ombudsman policy and some miscellaneous items: **** ASP SOFTWARE SUPPORT POLICY **** 1. All ASP members' shareware products must provide support (included in the purchase price) for a minimum of three months from the date of registration. If the support is by telephone, there may be a limitation on BOTH the total connect time and the period after purchase during which it is available without additional cost so long as the connect time is at least 30 minutes during the required three months. Support may be provided for a fee after this initial period has elapsed. The support policy must be clearly stated in the shareware documentation. 2. Support during the initial period may be one or more of the following: - mail support - telephone support (if this is the only support provided, at a minimum an answering machine must be available 4 hours per day; this support may be limited to thirty minutes of connect time at the option of the author) - for communications products, or ones associated to a communication product by BBS or major communications service - by any alternate method approved by the Board of Directors by a two thirds vote (of those directors voting) 3. The minimum level of support required by this policy involves answering questions and fixing serious bugs - 2 - during the minimum three month period. For problems involving a specific hardware or software environment or feature, the author may choose not to modify the program. In that case, if the report is within three months after purchase, then the author shall offer to refund the user's purchase price. 4. Any money sent to an author to register an unsupported product shall be promptly returned with an explanation that the product in question is no longer supported. 5. Known incompatibility with other software or hardware and major or unusual program limitations are noted in the documentation that comes with the shareware (evaluation) program. **** ASP REGISTRATION PAYMENT POLICY ***** 1. The Documentation must clearly describe how to register the product and what goods and/or services the user will receive for registering. 2. Fees must be expressed in fixed monetary amounts. Voluntary payments or contributions may not be solicited, although phrasing such as "if you use and like this product, please register" is allowed. 3. Multiple levels of registration may be set, as long as each level individually satisfies the above two requirements. **** ASP POLICY ON NO CRIPPLING **** The principle behind shareware is "try before you buy." ASP believes that users have a right to try a fully functioning shareware program in their regular computing environment. Accordingly, ASP authors agree that: 1. The executable files (and/or items linked in with executables) in their shareware and registered versions will be the same (with the exceptions noted below) 2. All the program's features will be fully documented. 3. Registration encouragement procedures which in the judgment of the Board are either unreasonable or unprofessional are not allowed. Exceptions to a strict interpretation of this policy are as follows: - to save disk space, tutorial and additional explanatory material may be left out of the shareware documentation. - 3 - - the shareware version may have registration encouragement procedures absent from the registered version (or which can be disabled with a code only provided to registered users). The term "registration encouragement procedure" means a method for alerting users to their duty to register the program. Permitting registration encouragement procedures is not to be construed as a means of avoiding the anti-crippling requirements. - the registered version may include sample files not included in the shareware version. - if source code is offered with the registered version, it may be withheld from the shareware version. - the author may provide two shareware versions: one a small version which the author designates the distributed version in normal circumstances (e.g. language tools in C only available in one model) so long as the full shareware version is available from some public source (possibly for a small distribution fee) and may be copied for trial purposes. The small version's documentation must clearly describe how users may obtain the full shareware version. - the author may provide an enhanced retail version of the program so long as it is not (in the opinion of 60% of the BoD) merely an attempt to circumvent this no crippling policy - registered users may be provided bonus utilities unrelated to (and which do not change) the basic functionality of the program - registered users may be given utilities which provide a convenience but which are not essential - exceptions approved by the ASP board of directors by a 60% vote of those voting **** ASP OMBUDSMAN POLICY **** 1. The board shall set up the office of Ombudsman and appoint someone to that position. The Ombudsman's sole role shall be to mediate disputes between ASP members and their customers. The Ombudsman shall report to the board situations where he feels board action or knowledge is appropriate. 2. All ASP members and vendor associate members are required to cooperate with the Ombudsman when approached by him/her. 3. If the ASP logo or name is used by any full member in any ads/docs etc in connection with any shareware program, then that member shall include the following statement with their shareware programs: "This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals - 4 - (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536" 4. This statement is only required if the ASP name is otherwise used by the author and it is only required in programs and/or versions distributed as shareware. It can be in any file provided with the shareware version of the program. In addition, members are free to include it in printed docs, ads and other mailings if they wish. 5. The first sentence may be replaced by " is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)." If an author's company is a company member, then the company name may be used instead of if the policy applies. 6. If the ASP logo or name is used by any ASP approved vendor in any ads/catalogs etc , then that vendor must include the following statement with their catalogs and newsletters and is encouraged to include it with all disks sold: "Company X is an approved vendor and associate member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware- related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536" **** ASP MISC STANDARDS **** The program has been thoroughly tested by the author and should not be harmful to other files or hardware if used properly. Any discussion of the shareware concept and of registration requirements is done in a professional and positive manner. The program author will respond to people who send registration payments, as promised in the program's documentation. At a minimum, the author will acknowledge receipt of all payments. The author will keep the ASP apprised of changes in mailing address and of any changes in the status of his programs. Membership Dues: - 5 - The ASP has annual membership dues. First year dues are currently $50.00 per year, pro rated to the quarter the applicant is accepted for membership. Subsequent year dues are currently $75. Mailing List Option: The ASP intends to provides mailing lists to outsiders. The mailing list provided as labels and not in electronic form shall be provided by whoever is keeping the official ASP membership list (currently the Secretary). The list shall consist solely of names and addresses and not phone numbers. Members shall have the option of being included in the mailing list or not as follows: Your name will be included on this list UNLESS you indicate that you do not want it included. At any time, any member may change their include/exclude status by notifying the keeper of the list in writing or via easyplex.