
          Ŀ
                                                      
            VENDINFO -- What's in It for the AUTHOR?  
                                                      
          


Anything that improves the quality and efficiency of communication
from authors to distributors is beneficial to both.  VENDINFO
provides many features that assist with this:

   o  VENDINFO provides a very comprehensive coverage of the
      information an author might want to communicate to
      distributors.  The 750 fields of information in a VENDINFO
      data record cover the whole range of relevant topics,
      including product description; required platform; contact
      information for author, ordering, and support; contact
      information for other distributors of registered version;
      prices and registration benefits; and detailed distribution
      policy, both in general and for each of 13 distribution
      channels.

   o  The structuredness of the VENDINFO record -- and the editor
      used to create it -- help the author avoid oversights.

   o  The editor's extensive help system provides a veritable
      "short course" on the industry for the relatively
      inexperienced author.

   o  Because the VendEdit editor has been designed to support the
      import of information files from your regional distributors,
      you will be able to easily include full and current contact
      information for them, as well as information about accepted
      forms of payment, and services provided.

   o  Easy access to the descriptive information in the VENDINFO
      file increases the chance that your own preferred descriptions
      will be used in BBS databases, vendor catalogs, etc.  This
      likelihood will become even greater as BBSes and BBS utilities
      begin to provide internal support for the extraction of this
      information.  Some 30 manufacturers of BBS and related
      software have already committed to support VENDINFO, including
      PCBOARD, Wildcat!, Major BBS, Searchlight BBS, and TBBS.

   o  The ease with which distributors can test your distribution
      policy, and the ease with which illegal distribution can be
      detected, will put "teeth" into your distribution policies for
      the first time.  No distributor will reasonably be able to
      claim that "It's just too much work to examine the
      distribution policies on all those products."

   o  Just to make the point about "teeth" crystal clear, imagine
      running a batch file that detects all "illegally distributed"
      packages on an entire "pirate" CD-ROM, and automatically
      creates and prints form letters inviting the authors to
      participate in a class-action suit.  The VENDINFO system will
      make this technically possible, for anyone so inclined.

   o  At the author's option, it will soon be possible to "brand"
      your executables with a brief VENDINFO record containing
      product identification and author contact information, along
      with your complete distribution policy.  This will insure
      that your package can be tested for violation of its
      distribution policy even if the VENDINFO.DIZ file has been
      removed.  The VENDINFO "branding record" can be inside
      your own CRC envelope, and thus protected from modification
      or removal.  Furthermore, if you choose, you will be able
      to protect the specific VENDINFO file from within the
      executable, both by storing a verifiable CRC-like value
      calculated from the file, and even by doing a run-time
      test for its presence, if desired.

   o  The VENDINFO Product Registry will provide visibility of your
      products to distributors, journalists, and even individual
      users who might not otherwise have discovered them.  It will
      also provide an easy way to distribute screenshots, and perhaps
      other artifacts related to your products.  It even provides a
      possibility for you to realize a small additional income, by
      sharing in the fees paid by distributors to use this service.

   o  The VENDINFO record actually SAVES space in the distribution
      package, because it's almost always smaller than the
      VENDOR.DOC, SYSOP.DOC, READ_ME.DOC, and other files it
      replaces.

   o  The free VendView viewer will soon give users an ability to
      access relevant information about your product from a pleasing,
      menu-driven viewer.  It will even allow individual users to
      test your product for "legality" of distribution, and for
      changes not allowed by your distribution policy.  This will not
      only increase user confidence, but may even result in users
      putting pressure on distributors who violate authors'
      distribution policies. 

