Freeware

Freeware is typically a proprietary, distributed without source code and carrying a restrictive license .
Freeware is a type of selling strategy and software provision in which product is available for free with paid improvements and features available under paid subscription. The codebase in question is always kept proprietary to avoid the possibility of open-sourcing paid functionality. While there is no universally acknowledged definition of “freeware,” every distributor defines it in their own way and imposes end-users a license containing the conditions in regard to reverse engineering, modification and redistribution that may vary [1, 4].
Freeware is contrasted to free open-source software (FOSS) whose source code is publicly available and grants users non-exclusive worldwide royalty-free redistribution and modification rights. Since the code can be found online, users can always compile and modify it however they want, which also makes it available free of charge in most occasions, while making business around FOSS is also possible via the means of selling support, consulting or computational resources known as SAAS (Red Hat, Canonical, cloud providers). The main difference between FOSS and freeware software is lack of freedom open-source provides and affiliation to an enterprise that develops and maintains freeware software and is responsible for stable work and user feedback, meanwhile FOSS usually runs on community volunteering, although may be associated with company as well (for example, TensorFlow and Teseract by Google) [2].
Software distributed under freeware include:
- various messengers (Discord, Telegram);
- certain games (Genshin Impact, DDLC).

Freeware are Copyrighted software given freely by the author. Although it is available freely, the author retains the copyright, which means that you cannot do anything with it that is not expressly allowed by the author .

Sources:

Reeta Sahoo, Gagan Sahoo Computer Science with Python. New Saraswati House, 2016 110

Categories of Free and Nonfree Software. GNU Project. Retrieved from: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html

R. Dixon (2004). Open Source Software Law. Norwood, the USA: Artech House.