Interactive EasyFlow

Interactive EasyFlow was a diagramming and flow charting software package produced by HavenTree Software Limited, of Kingston, Ontario Canada. It existed from 1981 until 1998, when it was bought out by SPSS Inc. It is mostly remembered today for its disclaimer and license. Both are written in plain English and not in legalese, thus emphasizing the problems with modern software licensing. Excerpts from the license and disclaimer are included into the fortune databases of many Linux and Bsd distributions.

Text of software license

This is where the bloodthirsty license agreement is supposed to go,explaining that Interactive Easyflow is a copyrighted package licensed foruse by a single person, and sternly warning you not to pirate copies of itand explaining, in detail, the gory consequences if you do.

We know that you are an honest person, and are not going to go aroundpirating copies of Interactive Easyflow; this is just as well with us sincewe worked hard to perfect it and selling copies of it is our only method ofmaking anything out of all the hard work.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those few people who do goaround pirating copies of software you probably aren't going to pay muchattention to a license agreement, bloodthirsty or not. Just keep your doorslocked and look out for the HavenTree attack shark.

Text of disclaimer

We don't claim Interactive EasyFlow is good for anything -- if youthink it is, great, but it's up to you to decide. If Interactive EasyFlowdoesn't work: tough. If you lose a million because Interactive EasyFlowmesses up, it's you that's out the million, not us. If you don't like thisdisclaimer: tough. We reserve the right to do the absolute minimum providedby law, up to and including nothing.

This is basically the same disclaimer that comes with all softwarepackages, but ours is in plain English and theirs is in legalese.

We didn't really want to include any disclaimer at all, but ourlawyers insisted. We tried to ignore them but they threatened us with theattack shark at which point we relented.

External links

* The text above does not fully express HavenTree's humour. Please see [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4188/sw_doc.html http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4188/sw_doc.html]