Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable, computing A program whose functionality is severely limited beyond that of shareware, often in the interest of its author having the crippleware user make a purchase of the uncrippled program.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cripple +‎ -ware

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Examples

  • Note that these aren't the rootkits that infect Windows PCs -- Sony's Mac crippleware comes from a different vendor called Suncomm.

    - Boing Boing 2005

  • Firstly, though released under the Open Game License, Monsters of Myth has adopted a "crippleware" approach to Open Game Content.

    REVIEW: Monsters of Myth James Maliszewski 2008

  • Media Rights Technology, a DRM crippleware vendor, has launched what may be the dumbest DMCA legal threat ever.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • It's a bummer to consider a future in which broadcasts -- which we can all see and record -- are replaced with geo-locked, streaming crippleware netcasts.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • There was piracy with shareware, so we removed features and went to crippleware.

    March 2009 Alice 2009

  • The last time around, a Doom9 poster named Muslix64 broke the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray crippleware by capturing a 16-byte key.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • Sounds like crippleware - I will stick with Linux thanks.

    Wired Top Stories 2009

  • There was piracy with shareware, so we removed features and went to crippleware.

    Takeaways from GDC2009: Tuesday morning: Indies Alice 2009

  • Bigpond Music doesn't work on a Mac, owing to the crippleware it attaches to its files to stop you sharing them with friends.

    Britney Hearts Bigpond Ben Barren 2006

  • Bigpond Music doesn't work on a Mac, owing to the crippleware it attaches to its files to stop you sharing them with friends.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Ben Barren 2006

  • The most difficult part to accept is that this is crippleware — by which I mean a deliberate limitation that takes additional work by the authors to impose.

    Why I’m leaving Elm - lukeplant.me.uk Luke Plant 2020

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