Short:    Appeal to authors to support Poland
Author:   tonid@elektron.pl
Uploader: tonid@elektron.pl
Type:     docs/anno

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Dear Amiga Shareware Author/Provider

This is a letter representing the Amiga community in Poland, concerning the
question of registration of shareware in our country. Please do read it
carefully and reply stating your views and possibilities as soon as possible,
at your convenience.

Problem definition:

The Amiga community in Poland is suffering quite a low amount of shareware
registrations and we (the author of this letter along with a group of other
Amiga users, and also the Amiga Promotion Group created in Poland for the
purpose of promoting our computer to the outside world) believe it is time to
change this.

We believe that the future of our machine lays very much in integration of the
community and in the continuous development of shareware, especially via
collections like Aminet, Fred Fish Disks, Meeting Pearls, etc. Amiga is
popular for being one of the most logically and modular built system, based
lately very much on shareware (with fine examples like xpk, MUI/MWB, MuFS,
locale, datatype collections, etc.), and it also demonstrates itself in our
organisational approach (Aminet, Fred Fish collections - integrated shareware
services). We believe that this road does lead us towards the future, and
many other computers lack this kind of co-operation amongst users and
developers. Therefore our initiative is based on similar way of thinking.

But first let us explain the reasons why the Amiga community in Poland has a
low shareware registration rate.

Reasons:

Reason #1 - legal issues

Only about 4 years ago the piracy of software was legally declared a crime in
Poland. Up till then all forms of piracy were not considered illegal and were
growing at an enormous rate. This has caused low moral approach towards
software, and many people still believe that the cost of the computer is only
that of the machine itself, and software is not a material thing.

The question of shareware piracy (cracks, using shareware for longer than the
licence allows) is still not fully clear according to our legal bills. This
means nobody can be legally pursued for using a shareware crack/pirate key.
Being unable to change the legal approach, we aim to change the moral
approach to shareware in Poland, by allowing easy registration and good
pricing schemes for Amiga users, along with promotion in all media possible
(FIDOnet, Internet, Amiga Magazine, Scene groups, etc.) and promoting the
registered users as "the better ones".

Reason #2 - local language and support

Poland being a post-communist country still has a mediocre level of
understanding and active use of foreign languages, English being now the most
popular, but still not known too well my many people in our country. Lack of
local support for shareware makes it impossible for many people to understand
the registration requirements, not to mention problems with contacting the
authors of shareware.

Reason #3 - registration difficulties

The Polish banking and mail/post system is not yet advanced enough for foreign
contacts. Registration via the "cash-in-envelope" method is not safe due to
the post offices still often opening letters to other countries. Eurocheques
are available only in some banks and most often only for companies and not
private account owners. International Money Orders are not yet implemented;
credit cards are very recently introduced, and not many people use/possess
them due to lack of local support (not many shops and institutions take
credit card payments yet). This makes it very difficult for an average user
to send a registration fee abroad, and most resort to cash-in-envelope, and
there were multiple cases of theft using this method.

Reason #4 - pricing

The currency exchange rates in Poland are still not too favourable, and
pricing of shareware compared to Polish reality is 2 to 5 times higher than
it would be if we had western wages. For comparison purposes, the average
wage in Poland in fall 1996 was about $300 a month ($3600 a year). Please
compare this to your local average wage and you will understand our problems
much clearer. This means that often it is suggested that shareware pricing
for Poland (and Eastern Europe countries in general, due to the fact most of
the post-communist countries experience similar problems) was reduced at the
convenience and good will of the author, and we already had cases like this
(for example Pino Aliberti the author of Mail Manager has reduced pricing for
MM for Poland).

Solution:

We see a possibility of solving this problem through establishing an
integrated local support and registration site(s) for most popular shareware
products. This site would be established before the interest in shareware
rises (as the above reasons for low interest have to be fought first in order
to rise the interest), and would function as a gateway from Polish local
community to the Western world. Here is exactly how we see it done.

1. I run a small company of my own, which does amongst many other things also
computer consulting services. It is fully functional according to local laws
and is capable of managing money transfers needed for a regsite. There would
be no initial costs for any shareware authors with the introduction of a
Polish regsite, only a bit of hassle which can definitely be tolerated and
brought down to a minimum, as we do not want to trouble authors (we would
rather have them spend their time and effort on developing good shareware).

2. It is proposed that the interested shareware authors establish a regsite in
Poland via this company (called TONID), either as a fully functional regsite,
or as a local support site that would be capable of organising group
registrations (if the idea of having a regsite in such a minor country does
not appeal to you, this would be an ideal solution). The regsite might also
function for the rest of Eastern Europe and post-USSR countries as well, but
it would be more efficient if local support was found there as well, as we do
not speak other E.E. languages well enough to provide support for them
(however, the idea is taken into consideration).

3. We will inform our local community of the functioning of the regsite and of
the programs it currently supports via: FIDOnet network echomail conferences,
Usenet local conferences, IRC, possibly via Amiga magazines (there are
currently 2 country-wide magazines appearing), via the Amiga Scene contacts
and similar media, possibly to the extension of local radio and television.
This should be joined with a campaign in the media encouraging registration
and teaching about its importance to the Amiga community, and the negative
role of shareware piracy.

4. The registration site will manage all local currency and key transfers via
snail-mail, e-mail, personal contact, local post and bank transfers, etc. All
transfer of keys with the authors can be done via either e-mail or on-line
connections (FIDOnet or Internet) and payment transfer can also be agreed (we
currently offer either foreign cheques or VISA, but we are in train of
providing Eurocheque support as well, and will be thinking of other methods
of safe and easy payment transfer abroad).

5. The registration site could develop, if necessary, into more similar
regsites around Poland which (only in case of large demand) would handle
local support in various regions of Poland, although this necessity is not
seen at this time and rather improbable, but must be thought of in advance.

6. Local translations (locale, .guide/.doc files) can be handled either by the
regsite if there is a large demand from the user side, or we will attempt to
co-operate with the largest organisation of Amiga shareware translators,
working under the scene acronym of WFMH. They have already released a large
package of shareware translations and we believe they will be open for such
co-operation with mutual benefits (local support and larger demand for the
regsite and larger demand for the WFMH Locale shareware product which brings
them more profits).

7. There remains a question of pricing schemes. The suggestion is that the
authors of shareware think about at least small reductions of their pricing
for Poland (possibly as promotions, limited-time offers, group requirements,
etc.), and also that there should be a small amount of money dedicated to
supporting the operations of the regsite and associated costs (bank fees,
disk fees, etc.). All pricing will be agreed with the authors of shareware,
and so will be the currency in which the regsite will communicate with those
authors.

Why should you help us and what will you gain?:

The establishment of the regsite in Poland will not only gain you larger
amount of local interest and popularity and will bring you extra profits. It
will as well open the door to the rest of Eastern Europe and post-USSR
countries, due to the strategic location and meaning of Poland. Establishment
of an integrated regsite is now an experiment, and if it succeeds (meaning if
the authors of shareware show an interest in this idea), it may open the way
for other such initiatives, which would facilitate registration for users by
giving them a single contact point for many programs, instead of many
different ways and methods of registrations dependent on the wishes of the
authors of shareware. We believe this kind of establishment deserves serious
consideration, as we already had a proof of the importance of local support
and registration through Pino Aliberti's Mail Manager - FIDOnet
editor/tosser/scanner - which used to have a regsite here (not active any
longer, but attempts are made to integrate it with the above initiative), and
there was a number of registrations done during that time, while both before
that time and now that the regsite is not active, local users are asking
where and how to register and, do not do it, due to the lack of local support
and difficulties discussed above.

Why us?:

Why me, I should say. There are a couple of reasons why I chose to take care
of this initiative. One - I'm an active member of the Amiga community in
Poland, both in more serious applications (I'm an author of articles for
local Amiga Magazines) as in the networks (I run a FIDOnet node, one of the
very few nodes run on Amigas in Poland, I have a private Internet account as
well) and on the scene (as a musician, .mod composer), now also a member of
Team AMIGA. Second of all, I own a small company developed for other reasons,
but this now makes it very easy for me to handle financial transactions.
Third of all, I am a professional translator/interpretor which makes it easy
for me to communicate with shareware authors around the world. Fourth of all,
I'm a never-ending fan of the Amiga computer and feel I have an obligation to
support it as much as I can, and I believe this initiative does express this
will of support much more than it brings financial gains (I do not expect
financial gains from this initiative, other than coverage of costs).

This concludes my short proposal of co-operation. Please treat it seriously
and feel free to discuss details with me via e-mail as much as you want to.
My approach is that only talking and discussing solves issues, and I hope we
can work together. Thank you for your co-operation.

You can contact me via the following media:
Internet email:  tonid@elektron.pl
                 Tomasz.Nidecki@f78.n480.z2.fidonet.org
FIDOnet netmail: Tomasz Nidecki   2:480/78@fidonet
Phone (fax on demand): +48 (22) 39 17 20 (late hours preferred)
Snail mail: Tomasz Nidecki ul. Sokolicz 1B m.10 01-508 Warszawa Poland

This message will be crossposted to all possible AMIGA groups, conferences,
also uploaded to Aminet, and possibly sent directly to Amiga shareware
authors (addresses will be provided by the people interested in registering).
The recipient of this message is kindly asked to forward it to anyone that
he/she thinks might be interested in this initiative. If you can, post this
message on your WWW site for people who might be interested to read it. If
you know someone who writes good, popular shareware - send it to them. If you
are in Poland and are interested that some shareware author supports this
initiative - send it to them (also send me the information of what shareware
you might be interested in). Let us all help ourselves for the bright future
of the Amiga computer. I also encourage users in other countries who have
similar capabilities as myself to start such initiative in your country.

Long live the AMIGA computer.

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