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Question about older freeware version of RoboRealm
Ben from Your Country [6 posts] |
13 year
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Is it ok to redistribute the older version that is freeware? I still have a copy on my computer. Because it was never a version that was for sale (as well as not having all the features of latest version, which IS for sale), I believe it is within my legal right (not an act of piracy) to redistribute it. But I'm here asking about it because I'm unsure of the legality or if it may violate the terms of the license agreement of the freeware version, thus making it illegal (even if it doesn't directly violate the US copyright law).
If one googles "roborealm" there are many sites/forums that have people complaining about the new policy of selling it and they don't know where to get the older free version. If it is legal to do so, I intend to upload my copy of the older freeware version of Roborealm to megaupload.com and/or mediafire.com and then post the download link to one of these forums on which people had been complaining about the switch in policy to selling roborealm (hopefully the features they need will have been present in the freeware copy I have). However I don't wish to do this until I'm sure of the legality of it.
I would appreciate it if the admin/developer of RoboRealm were to reply here to this post, so I can know how to procede.
Thanks in advance.
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Anonymous |
13 year
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Ben,
From the license along with RoboRealm file you will find the line
* Distribution. You may not distribute copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT to third parties.
So, to answer your question, no, you are not allowed to distribute the current nor the previous free application to anyone.
If you know of many people complaining about the cost please have them contact us directly. We have done much in the past to make RoboRealm accessible to everyone that needs it including an almost year long promotion to get RoboRealm for free ... at the end of which only those that had previously posted to sites like Instructables and Youtube asked to claim their copy retroactively. Nobody actually took advantage of that promotion ...
Thanks for asking!
STeven.
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Ben from Your Country [6 posts] |
13 year
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In particular I noticed another thread on this official Roborealm forum that had people bitterly complaining about the switch to having it be commercial software.
http://www.roborealm.com/forum/index.php?thread_id=3302
Also I'm curious, do you plan on making a free "Roborealm Lite" that would have only the features of the last freeware version of Roborealm (none of the features exclusive to any of the for-sale versions would be present), and maybe have a "nag screen" that would display every time the software was started and would stay on the screen for like 15 seconds before the main program displayed (and would basically contain an advertisement asking the user to buy the full version of Roborealm which could maybe be renamed "Roborealm Pro"). But it would have no other characteristics of a "trial" version such as limited run time per use, disabled after 30days, etc. By containing an ad in a "nag screen" it would give users of the "Lite" version knowledge of the existence of the "Pro" version, and of useful additional features in the Pro version.
This would still guaranty that the version to be bought got publicity compared to if you had a freeware version without a nag screen, but it would also allow people to experiment with cool software who didn't have the money or didn't think spending money on just "cool software" would be wise use of money. And to make up for any decreased number of customers, you could maybe change the $89 price of the pro version to $95 or $100.
I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business. This is just a suggestion, that if implemented I think would make other hobbyists on a tight budget very happy.
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Danh from United States [79 posts] |
13 year
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As someone who has purchased RoboRealm $89 is a great deal. Steve has always provided excellent support and we want to make sure him and his team are still in business years from now by compensating them for their work.
If one is short on cash then learn the free OpenCV package but it will come at a steep learning curve. Steve's team has done a great job of demystifying the complex topic of Computer Vision by making experimentation easy. Without RoboRealm, I don't know of any other easier to use package that brings Computer Vision to the masses for such a low price.
I'm curious to know the ages of people complaining. I have a suspicion that most are teenagers who don't have jobs and want things for free. BTW, I am 38 years old.
Danh
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Ben from Your Country [6 posts] |
13 year
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Anyone know of a truly FREE solution that has live video editing (can apply filters to video as it streams from the camera and does NOT need to work on saved AVI files), just like roborealm? Because I know of Gimp which is basically like freeware Photoshop (for working with still pictures). And at one point there WAS a free program like Roborealm. It was called Roborealm. Sadly they now have gone to make it commercial (and can't seem to take a hint from fellow Roborealm users that this shift to make commercial software is JUST LAME!) so I find myself looking for something like Gimp (COMPLETELY FREE FOREVER AND EVER) but with the live video stream editing capability of Roborealm.
If anybody knows of such software, PLEASE post a download link to it here. I'm really wanting something like this. And I NEVER plan to buy Roborealm EVER. Roborealm was originally freeware, and by all rights SHOULD HAVE STAYED that way. This is nothing but sheer greed, and I won't pay one penny to greedy people! I know they claim they need to make money on it, but if they had a REAL JOB (working at a real software company like Microsoft) then they would have enough money to support themselves AND have spare time (when their shifts allowed them to have spare time) to write their own software like Roborealm and then could KEEP IT FREE!!!!!
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[29 posts] |
13 year
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Software developers and programmers are a dime-a-dozen. When an application comes along that deserves compensation, RoboRealm is one of them. As previously mentioned, there is Open Source software like OpenCV (which I have), and I agree that the learning curve is VERY steep for those who want to move forward with robot vision or learning about video analytics. The RoboRealm team deserves profitable reward for their diligent work in developing a unique and fun application. Carefully look at the revision history and forums. You will find that updates are OFTEN and Steven quickly responds not only to questions, but in most cases, he provides the code/solution to your RoboRealm concerns. In today’s economy, you have to earn your worth and that’s what the RoboRealm is doing. I have suggested a ‘Life-Time’ RoboRealm (subscription) cost idea and they did not say ‘no’, but will consider it. If you are willing to pay the $89 or $98 (AVM) every year then a Life-Time, one-time cost would satisfy most users. Perhaps if (you) other programmers developed an application like AVM that would benefit the RoboRealm suite, you might barter for a life-time subscription.
I used to work at Microsoft and this kind of customer service support is rare and should be considered when purchasing RoboRealm. I’m also a programmer, embedded processor programmer, and robot enthusiast. I have no affiliation with RoboRealm or development of RoboRealm software or solution.
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Ben from Your Country [6 posts] |
13 year
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Well you see, the thing is Gimp, is COMPLETELY FREE! Why can't their be a program that is free that does for live video stream processing what Gimp does for still image processing? Gimp is a free alternative to Photoshop when it came to still image processing. Roborealm WAS a free alternative to National Instruments machine vision software when it came to processing live video stream from a camera without even needing to save to a video file. But now I must lump Roborealm in with NI's software, when it comes to live video stream processing, for now it is a commercial software in itself.
I'm NOT looking for OpenCV (or any other library that must be implemented in another programing language), but rather I'm looking fore a compiled software that will fill the spot Roborealm once had in the software world, a FREE program that is capable of LIVE VIDEO STREAM PROCESSING! Now since I'm not in bussiness, I have no intent of buying "cool software" like this, just getting it for free. So I can wait years if I have to for someone to develop a free answer to Roborealm. I'm sure it took years after the development of Photoshop for Gimp to come arround, and I'm sure eventually there will be a free solution to replace Roborealm. And so I hope the developers at Roborealm know to expect me to never buy their software (especially since I'm one of the people who already has the last freeware version of the Roborealm software anyway).
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Anonymous |
13 year
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We maintain a list of other mostly free vision based software at
http://www.roborealm.com/links/vision_software.php
some of which are more like OpenCV but there are others that are more GUI in nature.
We agree that RoboRealm may not be ideal for everyone and thus maintain that list to ensure that we are aware of what else is out there and to provide others with additional options.
Please feel free to browse this list and try out those applications.
STeven.
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