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FREE SOFTWARE
QuArK is Free Software, as stated by the GNU General Public Licence. Be careful ! This expression has the following meaning : "free software" means freedom, in that anyone who receive or buy the software can do whatever he wants with it, including giving it to other people, either gratis or for a fee; he just can't remove the "free" status of the software. "free software" is about freedom, not price. If anybody wants to distribute such a software, he can make people pay for it, and he can make money out of it. "free software" is not "public domain". The author (me) of the software remain its owner, with the usual intellectual property rights. All this means that free software may be commercial as well, with technical support, etc. (there is an Ada compiler in this case.) On the other hand, there is gratis software that is not "free" : most "freeware" or promotional software. QuArK is "free" but not "gratis". What the "free" status adds, is that anyone who received or bought the program has access to the source code as well. Anyone may modify the program, or make something else using my code and sell it, and so on, as long as the resulting program is also "free", in the same sense. Once again, "free" does not means "gratis" ! It is about freedom !
So what's the price ?
Previous versions of QuArK were Shareware, with a modest registration fee of 20$. In this "free" version, 20$ is the fee for downloading the software from my web page : download QuArK, and if you use it, please pay me. Of course, this is legally less strict as "shareware" : if you can get QuArK from a friend instead of from Planetquake, you don't owe me anything. But anyway, who pays the shareware registrations ? Fans ! And if you are so enthusiast and want to send me 20$, you are welcome ! In summary : if you download QuArK from the PlanetQuake web site, and if you use it regularly, you are required to pay me 20$. Please -- QuArK represents a lot of work for me.
Registering
I call this fee a "registration", mainly to show the analogy with Shareware, and because people who register will be added to my official list. Of course, people who registered the Shareware QuArK should not register again ! I tell people who register how they can remove the flashing text about "free software" that cause delay when QuArK starts up. Note to programmers : the GNU General Public Licence prevents you from distributing modified versions of the program that don't display this text ! I don't live in the U.S. But it might be a bit complicated to make international cheques for such a small sum. So I think the easiest for you is to mail me a $20 bank note under cover (in a letter) along with your name and your e-mail address, if any. If you don't live in the U.S, just send me the equivalent sum in your currency. Put $20 in a letter (shipping is $0.60 from the U.S.) and post it to :
                 Armin Rigo
                 La Cure
                 CH-1854 Leysin
                 Switzerland
A single registration is valid for all current and future versions of QuArK.

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