Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Windows, Commercial
GiveawayOfTheDay.com
by Jason Clarke Nov 19th 2006 at 12:30PM
Giveaway of the Day is a site that offers instruction on brain surgery and building nuclear-powered devices. Okay, not really. Pretty predictably, Giveaway of the Day is a site that gives something away every day, and that something is commercial software. Over the last few days, copies of EasyDVDCopy, iPod AudioBook, CDuke, LoadScout, and Frigate3 File Manager have been given away. The plan at Giveaway of the Day is to work with software publishers to offer fully-licensed versions of their software for free for one day as a promotional tool. Publishers gain the word of mouth advertising that comes from happy users acquiring a full license to their products, and Giveaway of the Day gets to be the ones offering the giveaways. And users get free software - so theoretically it's a win-win-win situation.
At the moment, the software titles that have been offered are not familiar to me (with the exception of Frigate3 File Manager), so it seems that at least initially, GAOTD is working out arrangements with smaller software publishers. That's not a knock against them, however - a plan like this can take some time to execute, and already they're offering free commercial titles.
Here's the stated goal at Giveaway of the Day, right from their site:
Yes, we are giving away software, and you can download it from our site, right now and right here and our goal is to give away every good piece of software, sooner or later.
That's not a bad plan!
[Update] There's an interesting discussion going on in the comments. One commenter notes that the software must be installed the same day it is downloaded, or you are required to pay for it to install it. It turns out the terms are set out on the site, and I simply missed them when writing up this post. From what I can tell, it's not a scam, but not quite as free as it seems at first blush. If you're interested in how this site's promotion actually works, check out the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MB said 11:12PM on 11-19-2006
It's a scam. It's not freeware, it's crippleware. You HAVE to install the software within the 24hrs or it won't ever install. If you need to uninstall it and reinstall it, it won't ever install again. I waited till the next day to install one the programs I had downloaded and it suddenly stopped becoming Freeware.
Funny how they are not up front about that little gotcha. No wonder they hide the mysterious "terms and conditions" document and don't tell you up front what their real rules are.
Sorry, but by any definition this is still shareware. Either give the apps away for free and let users keep them forever or stop calling it freeware.
What they are doing is misleading at best and dishonest at worst. If I were you I'd pull my link to them.
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keith said 11:12PM on 11-19-2006
From: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/cduke/#comments
Dear Giveaway visitor, please note that:
- You can only install the software during the giveaway period for this software. Please check our web-site to see the giveaway action timelimit for the software. If you miss the giveaway period, the activation software will not work.
- Once removed from your computer, the giveaway software will not be free upon next installation. You can activate it for free only during the giveaway hours.
- We cannot activate your software for free if the giveaway period is over and we cannot we send you a new activation file.
Please understand that this is important for both our company and the software companies that we only offer those giveaways for a LIMITED period of time. We pay the license fee to software companies and this fee is agreed upon for this LIMITED period of time. Thus, it’s illegal for us to distribute the software for free in any form once this agreed period is over.
If you missed the giveaway for the software you’d like to install and use, please use the legal way to acquire this software and purchase the license from the software company which develops the program, thus supporting both software developers and our project.
Thank you for your understanding,
Giveawayoftheday project team
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gatekeeper said 11:12PM on 11-19-2006
While I acknowledge that their terms are restrictive, I think the effort is admirable and the compromise is fair. Software publishers do have to control their intellectual property somehow. I'd gladly accept a one-day window to install commercial software (NOT freeware) for free even if it means the next time I want to install it, I'd have to pay. If I like the software, I certainly will. I hope the idea takes off and will continue to check the site for each day's selection.
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James said 5:52AM on 11-20-2006
I'm with gatekeeper on this one. The stated terms seem reasonable given that they essentially are giving away unrestricted commercial software. If it gets to the point where you need to install said software again, then the fair thing to do would be to break out your wallet.
I think this is a great idea, I will also be checking back regularly.
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Slava said 11:43AM on 11-20-2006
Well, guys, our terms are clearly stated on our web-site, and we do not hide any secrets. Yes, you have 24 hours window to install the software for free, otherwise you have to buy it. Please understand that we make agreements with software companies and pay them for software licenses, and, of course, those companies do not want us to distribute their software for free infinitely, we only pay for a limited period of time. They want us to promote software, not to ruin their sales forever.
We do not call the software "freeware", and we cannot do this because it's not our software, it's commercial software made by other software companies which sell it.
If we keep those software companies happy, we will get more software companies willing to work with us and we will have more giveaways for our visitors, hopefully making them happy as well.
We do not hide our income sources as well - we plan to put ads on our web-site, and part of this income will get to software developers as a licensing payment.
Yes, we plan to add more titles to our web-site, so if you know a good software company, tell them about us -if the software fits our web-site, we will pay for their software license in a legal way, and add another giveaway to our web-site.
Please feel free to ask questions if you think there's still something hidden, we'd be glad to make things clear for you.
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RG said 12:17PM on 11-20-2006
Good job Slava, its a great idea and thanx for doing it, I hope you get more interesting software, not screensavers, more often.
To those who disagree with this concept I think this fits this topic pretty well: My only gripe is with freeware software publishers who one day decide to become shareware for excuses like 'its taking too much time', as if they never hoped their freeware would be a success. So concepts like GiveawayOfTheDay are a good way to try out, hopefully, good shareware and commercial software.
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Rich said 10:41PM on 11-26-2006
How long do you think it will be before some hacker is breaking the wrapper that creates the 1 day install period. I'm sure as soon as that makes it to the first page of a Google search of "giveawayoftheday crack" the software developers will decide against putting their software on the site, and the whole idea will be history. Don't underestimate hackers if they can crack everything now, this will sure to follow. Sorry for the negetivity, I wish the site well!
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Mark B. said 9:35PM on 11-21-2006
Sorry but the software was not what the description said it would do and would only install in a share ware version that staed buy now on it and hot deal. the worts part would not unistall sorry this looks bad on Download Squad you had a great record and will think twice before I get or recomed anything on your site
the software in question was "Giveaway of the Day - Total Movie Converter" read the comments funny mine was sent at 4:30 am and was not posted on there site.
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blendermf said 12:12AM on 2-04-2007
hey, who cares if you have to download and install it the same day, is it that hard. The only way I could see someone not being able to do this is if you are on dialup, and you have to download a huge file, that takes more than a day, but most of the software has small file sizes anyways.
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