The following is the text of the ASP Ombudsman Policy.


Ombudsman Policy:

1.  The board shall set up the office of Ombudsman and appoint someone
to that position.  The Ombudsman's sole role shall be to mediate
disputes between ASP members and their customers.  The Ombudsman shall
report to the board situations where he feels board action or knowledge
is appropriate.

2.  All ASP members and vendor associate members are required to
cooperate with the Ombudsman when approached by him/her.

3.  The shareware version of any shareware program produced by ASP
author members must contain the following text as part of some file on
disk. (The shareware version means the one intended for trial use).

  "This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member
directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products.  Please write to the ASP
Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a Compuserve
message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536"

4.  Inclusion of Ombudsman statement.

4.a.  Versions of ASP shareware sent to users when they register with
the author or his direct agent shall also have the Ombudsman statement
quoted in point #3, but these statements may be in a written form
included in the registration package.

4.b.  Packages of the registered version (essentially idnetical to those
sent registered shareware users) intended for sale in retail
establishments or primarily retail mail order firms need not have an
Ombudsman statement included. However, if the version contains any
reference to shareware, it must also contain the Ombudsman statement.

4.c.  Members are free to include the Ombudsman statement in printed
documentation, ads, and other mailings if they wish.

5.  The first sentence may be replaced by "<Member's name> is a member
of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)."  If a member's
company qualifies under the company name policy, the company name may be
used instead of <member's name>.



6.  ASP approved vendors must include the following statement with their
catalogs and newletters and is encouraged to include it with all disks
sold:

  "Company X is an approved vendor and associate member of the
Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure
that the shareware principle works for you.  If you are unable to
resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can help
you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not
provide technical support for members' products.  Please write to the
ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a
Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536"

7.  The Ombudsman statement may not be hidden in a file or other manner
which 60% of the board of directors regards as obscure.

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Note that the Ombudsman policy will likely be changed in the future to
include Approved BBS associate members. Meanwhile the applicable aspects
of this Policy are covered in the Standards document 3.1.