A number  of people  privately asked  me for  more information  about the
commercialization  of LISTSERV,  and some  expressed their  concern about
what would happen if they suddenly had to pay to keep using the software.
While I originally planned to make this announcement after the completion
of  negotiations  with the  major  networks,  I guess  circumstances  now
dictate  otherwise. First,  the most  important: don't  panic, nobody  is
going to pull the  rug from under you. You can keep  using the version of
LISTSERV you have now  for as long as you want and  without having to pay
anything. You are protected by the license agreement you had with me when
you  ordered the  software.  The change  in policy  only  applies to  new
versions, and to new licenses of  existing versions for sites not already
running the code.
 
LISTSERV  and LMail  started being  available as  commercial products  in
June, from a company called L-Soft  international. I am still working for
SUNET and  will remain with them  at least until February  1994, which is
when my contract expires, and  probably for another year part-time, after
which they  will probably dump BITNET  and all IBM hardware,  and will no
longer need me. I get royalties on  the sales of LISTSERV, of course, and
I  also  have  management  responsibilities within  L-Soft  and  complete
control over  LISTSERV development. What  this means in practice  is that
there will be no major change in  philosophy and your users will not have
to adapt  to the  kind of  fundamental changes  usually brought  about by
changes of  ownership. There  will be  changes of  course, but  they will
happen as  before -  as smoothly  as possible, given  the time  frame and
circumstances. At  any rate, you  don't have  to worry about  finding out
that  the database  functions have  been removed  overnight because  they
might have  impacted the sales  of some  other product, or  anything like
that.
 
Anyway, a few weeks  ago a transition plan was drafted,  and we found out
that  we didn't  have many  options  to choose  from, nor  was there  any
serious problem  with the "obvious" choice.  So we decided that  the next
versions  of  LISTSERV  and  LMail  would only  be  available  to  paying
customers, and that I would stop  handing out free licenses to new BITNET
sites on the 1st of September.  Informal support will continue until that
date, under  the same conditions  as before.  Note that this  means that,
once a  new version is  out and solves a  certain problem, fixes  are not
provided for  older versions unless  the problem  is a very  serious one.
After the 1st of September, only  paying customers will be able to submit
bug reports and receive fixes or  other forms of customer assistance. The
public lists  (LSTSRV-L, LSTOWN-L and  LMAIL-L) will remain open  to all,
and will continue to provide the same kind of informal help as before. In
addition, L-Soft  plans to  hire a  LISTSERV expert  to provide  a higher
level  of customer  support than  presently  possible, and  to assist  in
various aspects of  LISTSERV development. Since most  questions are asked
on the  public lists,  this means  the quality  of LISTSERV  support will
improve for both paying and non-paying customers (which we like to see in
an optimistic light as prospective,  not-yet-paying customers :-) ). Now,
I am  sure there will  be people bold enough  to complain that  we aren't
fixing bugs in the older, free version,  or that I did not place the last
free versions  in the public  domain just  before making it  a commercial
product so that  anyone can offer his own free  and "improved" version of
LISTSERV without  having to worry  about lawsuits, and  all I can  say is
that  the conditions  you have  just  read are  just  about as  far as  a
for-profit company can stretch it, and elicited more frowns than standing
ovations at first  hearing. The September deadline may seem  a bit close,
but that is because  we expect new versions to be out by  that time and I
cannot do much in terms of support  for old versions; I don't want people
to say "But you promised to keep supporting us until 1994!". Version 1.7f
will have been  out for about 5  months by the September  deadline, so if
there are still problems they are unlikely to be critically serious.
 
Now, here is where  we stand. About a week ago, EARN  and L-Soft signed a
licensing agreement granting  all EARN sites access to  both LISTSERV and
LMail. This means EARN sites can  upgrade from LISTEARN at their earliest
convenience,  and will  receive new  versions  and fixes  as they  become
available. Contact the  EARN office for more information  on the ordering
procedure  (there is  nothing to  pay, you  just have  to sign  a license
agreement). Volume licenses are also  being negotiated with both CREN and
NetNorth for their respective memberships, and  in fact I had expected to
delay this announcement  until I was in a position  to say something more
concrete and positive, but at this point it would be inappropriate for me
to say anything at all beyond the fact that negotiations have started and
that there  hasn't been enough  time yet  to reach a  business agreement.
Finally, the only  reason we haven't started negotiations  with the other
cooperating networks is a very tight  schedule and the time of year, plus
the  fact  that some  countries  simply  cannot  afford to  pay  US-level
licensing fees in hard currencies. Some of these countries may be premium
markets in 5 years,  and we have to find a suitable way  to give them the
help they need while  bearing in mind that L-Soft is not  a branch of the
Salvation Army. In fact, it would help if the technical contact for these
networks would  drop me a note  with some information about  their future
plans for  expansion, what role they  see for LISTSERV in  their country,
and so on.  L-Soft is very interested in cooperative  agreements where we
would provide software  at a high discount rate, or  even free, but would
receive something useful in exchange.
 
At this point,  I think the best  thing for non-EARN sites to  do is wait
and see  what kind of  agreement L-Soft negotiates with  their respective
networks. L-Soft will of course license directly to individual sites that
wish to have  their own license, and I probably  shouldn't be telling you
not to go  buy one right away  :-), but since I  value long-term benefits
over short-term ones I will anyway. Unless you have plans to leave BITNET
in the near future  and would thus have little use for  a license tied to
your membership in a certain network, I  don't see any reason not to wait
a month or  two and see what your networking  organization can offer you.
To  be on  the  safe side,  you  can have  your  lawyers review  L-Soft's
licensing agreement (GA9305-2.PS from LISTSERV@SEARN)  so that you are in
a position to place an  order quickly should your networking organization
decide not to  get a global license.  The agreement does not  bind you in
any way as  long as you don't  order anything, and once it  is signed you
can place an order with a simple FAX referring to the agreement by number
and receive the software in a matter of hours or at most days.
 
Finally, I thought  that you would want  to know what L-Soft  plans to do
with this money.  There will be a  benefit to make, of course,  but a lot
will be reinvested in new developments specifically targeted at the needs
of the present  BITNET community. We all know that  BITNET is unlikely to
last more  than a few  years, and that its  unique technology is  not yet
available  on the  Internet.  Unfortunately,  management sometimes  takes
statements like  "SENDFILE is a  totally useless anachronism, FTP  is all
you will  ever need and  the proof that SENDFILE  is useless is  that the
Internet would  already have  it otherwise" at  face value,  just because
they were made  by someone whose name they saw  in some computer magazine
or other,  and thousands of users  end up losing a  valuable service that
they had come to rely on. L-Soft's strategic mission is to adapt LISTSERV
to the  needs of the future  NJE-less, VM-less community, and  to develop
new  software that  will make  the traditional  BITNET services  (such as
SENDFILE or TELL) available to  users without NJE connectivity. Should we
have to develop new protocols for  TCP/IP SENDFILE or TELL, we would make
the protocol  descriptions publicly  available so  that other  people can
develop implementations for  systems we do not support (we  do not expect
to develop these protocols alone, but  on the other hand we won't abandon
a project  just because a public  list has turned into  a permanent flame
fest).  As  far  as  LISTSERV  is  concerned, we  are  going  to  make  a
"bilingual" version that  can run with mostly the same  source code under
both VM and VMS, thus ensuring full compatibility while lowering the cost
of running  LISTSERV. The  next step will  be to port  it to  Windows NT,
which is very close to VMS and will further decrease the price tag of the
"entry level"  LISTSERV configuration. TCP/IP  TELL and SENDFILE  will of
course be  integrated as they become  available. We also plan  to develop
click-and-go user interfaces to LISTSERV  for personal computers. None of
this  would have  been  possible without  money to  back  all these  nice
dreams, and that is the main reason why I decided to turn LISTSERV into a
commercial  product.  After spending  years  trying  to convince  various
organizations to  do these sorts  of things  and being told,  in essence,
that "It is a good idea, but it is  a lot of money and how can we be sure
that it is a better investment than an 8.7% certificate of deposit in the
bank", I  decided to try an  approach with better chances  of success and
more exciting long-term prospects for me.
 
  Eric