Downloadable Software: The Cheap, the Free, and the Buyer Beware

Some software publishers make their software freely available, but ask everyone who uses it regularly to pay a registration fee for it. This type of software is called shareware.

Shareware often has a free trial period that allows you to use it for a short time or for a certain number of executions to decide whether you want to buy it. It is no more legal to use a shareware program beyond its initial trial period without paying for it than it is to use pirated software.

Freeware is shareware that you don't have to pay any money to use. But even freeware usually requires registration and comes with a license that limits its redistribution.

Other people make illegal copies of copyrighted software publicly available "for free." That's called warez -- illegal publicly available copies of copyrighted commercial software. Warez sites pop up and are shut down on the Web on a daily basis.

Every Web portal and search engine has a page listing shareware and freeware Web sites; I like C|Net’s http://shareware.cnet.com/

Before you download any software from the Web, be sure you research both the software you want to download and the site you're downloading from. Legit sites and legit software are closely monitored for viruses and unintentional side effects, but mistakes do happen. Mistakes happen more often -- and sometimes on purpose -- with warez.

Also, it's common for shareware and freeware to be written by individuals or small companies, and there's often less support available for them than for standard commercial software.

(Shrink-wrapped software can, of course, carry viruses, have unpleasant side effects, and have poor support too. The only computer virus I've ever gotten came on the install diskette I got with a new video card. And recently, a major antivirus distributed an online update for a day or two that caused certain machines not to boot. And just about everyone has a "big software company" support horror story. So I guess the buyer always has to beware, even when you pay money for the product.)