Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!gatech!dcatla!mclek
From: mclek@dcatla.UUCP (Larry E. Kollar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: No more Cinemaware stuff for Amiga !!!????
Message-ID: <21429@dcatla.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jul 89 18:24:04 GMT
References: <268@nrcvax.NRC.COM> <30140@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <4929@alvin.mcnc.org> <1989Jul24.163632.23920@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Reply-To: mclek@sunb.UUCP (Larry E. Kollar)
Organization: DCA Inc., Alpharetta, GA
Lines: 59

Does Cinemaware make anything other than games?  Just wondering.

In article <1989Jul24.163632.23920@ddsw1.MCS.COM> karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) writes:
>
>[ bad experience at an SF convention ]
>
>After seeing this I decided then and there that my company would never produce 
>an Amiga product.  I've never seen something like this in the MSDOS or Unix
>world. [...]
>
>We'll stay with Unix products, even though we could write some really killer
>packages for the Amy.

Speaking as one who has *never* pirated Amiga software, your decision is
a loss to all of us.  I won't say that piracy isn't a problem on the Amiga,
but I would go so far as to say that what you saw was extreme and rare -- you
caught the very worst of it the first time.

I've seen similar things in the Mac world -- including a '68 Mustang with
a trunk full of pirated Mac software -- and I'll bet you could find something
on a similar scale in the MS-DOS world if you looked around.  I remember
reading something about a pirate board in New York City that had the *source
code* to Lotus 1-2-3 as well as a "cracked" binary!

Such extreme piracy probably does not exist in the Unix world -- although
as Unix gets more popular & lands on more desktops, it will happen.  It's
just a matter of time.

>Wise up people.  If you pirate enough the people who make the products you
>are _stealing_ will stop producing software, you'll have nothing to use, and
>the hardware companies will go out of business too (since without software a
>computer is useless!)

I have no kind words for pirates.  But there's a LOT of shlock on the market
that doesn't get supported by the producers.  People like that are going to
get pirated out the wazoo, because there's no advantage to *buying* their
product.  I'm talking about support here -- a sympathetic voice on the line,
or a prompt written response:  "yes, that's a bug; here's a workaround until
we get the next version out."

Example?  Delta Research produces JForth, a really nice implementation of
Forth for the Amiga.  I was having a problem with JForth 1.2, which I dis-
covered after 2.0 was available (for $50 upgrade).  Instead of just saying
"buy the new version," Phil Burk (the owner) dug into the code, found the
bug, provided a workaround, THEN said "buy the new version; it doesn't have
this problem."  I did.

Gold Disk *must* be doing well; they've just released several new Amiga
products.  Of course, pirates really have no need for productivity software.
Pirates may copy it, but I doubt they actually use it.

If you follow through on your motto -- "quality solutions at a fair
price" -- and you have the right product, AND you SUPPORT it, you'll
make money in the Amiga market.  You'll have some piracy, but the people
who have a real need for your product *will* buy it (supporting only
registered owners is a widely-accepted practice :-).
-- 
Larry Kollar	...!gatech!dcatla!mclek
: life BEGIN funds @ enough_to_retire < WHILE work REPEAT ;