22 May 2000 | Print  |

Poll Results: Paying Your Fair Share

by Jeff Carlson

Poll Results: Paying Your Fair Share -- Prompted by last week's article about the misappropriation activities of Gadget Software, our thoughts turned to the more common situation where people use shareware without paying for it. Reminding people that TidBITS polls are anonymous, we asked, "Of the shareware programs you use regularly on your Mac, approximate what percentage have you paid for?" The results indicate TidBITS readers are generally an honest bunch. Of the 1,180 responses, about 70 percent said they paid more than half of their shareware, with a full 22 percent claiming they pay for absolutely everything. Of the 30 percent of respondents who said they paid for less than half of their shareware, only 7 percent admitted to paying for none of it. The topic also raised some interesting points on TidBITS Talk about why people may not always pay for shareware, how shareware authors could make paying easier, and the increasingly minimal differences between shareware and commercial software. [JLC]

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbpoll=41>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1037 +1038>

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