Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!rpi.edu!kudla From: kudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Software thieves (was Re: Software theives) Message-ID: <6877@rpi.edu> Date: 20 Aug 89 18:47:37 GMT References: <30706@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <6846@rpi.edu> <2361@raspail.cdcnet.cdc.com> <6865@rpi.edu> <58013@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <12133@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> Sender: usenet@rpi.edu Distribution: usa Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY Lines: 66 In-reply-to: bob@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU's message of 20 Aug 89 00:07:47 GMT In article <12133@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> bob@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (robert s. richardson) writes: I used to feel the same way Robert does. But a few years ago when I started selling my own program for the C64 (Sequel BBS, which I wanted to sell for $29 and the publisher wanted to sell for $59) got heavily pirated. I was pissed. Then I realized what I hipocrite I was. Ah, but that's why I question my choice of careers. Just recently, I've seen a friend of mine who started me off on Amiga stuff (are you listening, Mr. S.U.?) become a developer and as such, an instant hypocrite. "I don't like piracy anymore. I'm a developer now." Hell, I've written stuff myself! Trading Post BBS on the C64 was really a piece of shit, but it was better than some of the commercial efforts and I made a little money off of it in shareware. My Mac to 64 converter was slow, but it was the first one, and I made money off of it, too. (Note that by "make money" I don't mean "profit". When I'm programming for recreation, which is the only way I program, I consider my time to be free.) Over the past couple years I have purchased everything I use regularly, bought some used games, and covered up the remaining disks with useful PD stuff. And I feel great. I also erased all my videos and am now searching for used copies at video stores. Have you come into money recently? That's the other thing that usually brings about such a change, I find. But what on earth will you do with hundreds of blanks? (Video piracy is something else altogether. At least you can rent movies; the only real reason to pirate them is to have them on hand at all times. Good enough reason to me.) So, now you have a confession of a reformed pirate. I hope other folks follow my example. And right alongside, someone who decided to follow the straight and narrow for over a year before realizing I wasn't having any more fun computing. There are just no good games in the public domain, and I'm too damned broke to lay out hundreds of bucks for games I'll play a dozen times or so. Software rentals, at least, would help that out a bit. But I'm not about to become a hypocrite, either. (At least not in that regard.) Born-again Christians preach reform, too, you know. Oh yeah, and not having two hundred bucks to blow on a compiler kind of puts a cramp on my development work to begin with. Developing on a one meg one drive system is a bitch, but at least with a pirated copy of Lattice in hand, it's possible..... not that I do any right now. By the way, does anybody have a used Marble Madness they'd like to sell? I do miss that game. (And a used VHS BladeRunner, Aliens, Brazil, or Ferris Bueller would be welcome as well.) OK OK, I have to admit there are movies I would only settle for the original of: Torch Song Trilogy, Ferris Bueller (but I don't have to because everyone else has pirated it, la la la! :) ), that Bob and oug Mackensie movie, Rocky Horror (but it's not available legally, so la la la), etc. But have you honestly played Marble Madness enough for it to be worth the fifty bucks or whatever they wanted for it originally? I doubt it; no one has an attention span that long for a game that simple...... -- Robert Jude Kudla Pi-Rho America \\ /// Blah 2346 15th St. \\ /// Troy, NY 12180 /X\ \\\/// keywords: mike oldfield yes u2 r.e.m. new order (518)271-8624 // \\ \XX/ steely dan f.g.t.h. kate bush .....and even Rush