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From: emmo@moncam.co.uk (Dave Emmerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Piracy
Keywords: software piracy
Message-ID: <223@marvin.moncam.co.uk>
Date: 28 Jun 89 18:55:37 GMT
Organization: Monotype ADG, Cambridge, UK
Lines: 62

My twopenneth for what it's worth...
I tend to 'roll my own', the decision as to whether to buy
or write it myself seems to boil down to my being prepared
to pay about a pound for each estimated week's work saved
by buying instead. (sorry if that sounds mean)
I don't know anyone who can offer me pirated software, so
I can only say I doubt whether I'd PAY for a ripped off
copy, but I confess I might be tempted to use it if it were
given to me. Certainly I was annoyed to find that a 'bargain'
audio tape was only a very good copy, but sadly, not enough
to inform the law enforcement peeps (who would have confiscated
it). 
I used to get *really* annoyed when bought software didn't come
up to expectations, but if I buy any more, I've got somewhere
to shout about it now, amongst other potential buyers. More likely
I'll read about it here first without the bias often found in 
magazine reviews.
I tend to use PD software, since I often want to modify the
source, and I have easy access to lots of this. Having
played nethack (a form of dungeons & nasties- new 'C' source to
be broadcast soon), no other game interests me.
That aside, I have made donations for a couple of shareware
programmes I used on the QL (don't laugh!), and felt more
than happy to do so. The authors probably got as much that
way as they would have in royalties anyway.

The only lasting solution otherwise lies with the hardware
people. One *crude* and probably non-workable example is..
each machine has a scrambler in its databus/floppy drive path
and an ID which represents the configuration used on that
particular machine. Software houses supply disks directly
to purchasers, suitably encrypted for his/her machine's ID
- a pirate copy *probably* won't work on YOUR machine unless
the pirate is prepared to decrypt/reencrypt, and he/she
will not want the hassle when there's easier money to be made..
Certainly the designers *could* do something to help.
Just food for thought.
Oh, and I do realise that 'small time' pirates would be able
to transfer via modem etc..  there'll always be ways.
Slightly less feasible is to put an ID in each ROM set, 
and write the disk driver to only accept ID=0 on disk (user's
own disks) or ID=disk ID. The bought software would then
either abort or cripple itself if the disk ID was 0
Less feasible? Well the manufactors would have to use non-
mask type ROMs (an extra pound per chip), and an intelligent
programmer to change a longword counter each time, two major
deviations from 'normal' practice.

Data piracy is a major headache to the typo department of
my employers, we have to embed an ID into each of our machines
-I won't say how- and code every single font disk, but
they obviously feel its worth the small extra effort.

Gosh, don't I go on...
____
Dave E.



-Disclaimer-
Well that's MY opinion and I'm sticking to it!
(But my employer might not agree..)