Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!unisoft!bdt!david From: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Software Piracy through Mail Order Summary: Unethical dealers Message-ID: <609@bdt.UUCP> Date: 6 Jul 89 17:39:45 GMT References: <11201@ellymae.phx.mcd.mot.com> Reply-To: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Distribution: na Organization: Beckemeyer Development Tools, Oakland, CA Lines: 48 In article <11201@ellymae.phx.mcd.mot.com> waycott@ellymae.phx.mcd.mot.com (John Waycott) writes: >I recently purchased a few programs from Software Discounter's of America [editied...] >Well, I received them a few weeks later and to my surprise I got a copy >of FSP 1.0 in a box which was clearly labeled 2.0. What makes this interesting >is that Michtron, the distributor of FSP, NEVER SOLD version 1.0! The >box and manual were shrink-wrapped, and no warranty card was in the box. As a software vendor, I've seen quite a few resellers do this sort of thing. It seems pretty common for dealers to open the package, copy the programs, and then re-shrink-wrap it and sell it. Not too bad in itself (so that they can demo the program and become familiar with it) if they at least put everything back, including the reg. card. But many times dealers have registered a program, then sold that same disk to a customer! Of course, I can't blame the customer - he gets validated. But it's a hassle for us and for the customer. This happens even in stores, not only with Mail-Order. What's worse, many dealers have sold the "NOT FOR RESALE" demo diskettes to customers! All this causes us to have to use a registration scheme and validate the honest paying customers before giving tech. support. (Yes some people actually call with phoney reg. numbers, hoping to get help with the program for which they have no manuals.) This is an inconvenience for the customer, especially when the reg. cards get lost in the mail. Overall though, most dealers are not this way. I'm sure this also happens on the IBM-PC too. I agree with the John though when he says nobody has brought up how the honest paying customer is hurt by piracy. Some of the points about how the vendor is helped by piracy may in fact be true. But I still argue that if the software vendor is making a profit from the product and pirates are using the product for free, then the paying customers are financing the pirates, by paying an inflated price. Arguing that the pirates wouldn't buy the program anyway is no argument; they are using the program without paying for it. The paying customers are paying for the software that the pirates use. The pirates owe that money to the paying customers, *not* the software vendor. The paying customers should take up a class action suit against the pirates. -- David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.UUCP) | "Adios amigos. And, as they say when Beckemeyer Development Tools | the boys are scratching the bad ones, 478 Santa Clara Ave. Oakland, CA 94610 | 'Stay a long time, Cowboy!'" UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax}!unisoft!bdt!david | - Jo Mora