Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!orstcs!jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU!bob
From: bob@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (robert s. richardson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software thieves (was Re: Software theives)
Message-ID: <12140@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 20 Aug 89 19:50:09 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> <6877@rpi.edu>
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In article <6877@rpi.edu> kudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) writes:
>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.)

I feel the same way.  If I wanted to make money in software I wouldn't have
bought an Amiga.  (And come to think of it, if I hadn't have bought an
Amiga I would probably have enough cash to buy gas for my car right now.)

>
>   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?

Actually, no, I have not come into money recently.  I took awhile to save
up for the productivity packages.  As far as games are concerned, they
can be obtained quite cheaply.  Just watch for messages in this very
newsgroup.  

>(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.)

You can rent software, too.  See my other posting.  (Maybe you can't
in your state, I don't know.)

>
>   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.

So don't lay out hundreds of bucks for games NEW, buy them used from
some other poor soul who was dumb enough to pay retail in the first
place.  You say you are a programmer, so if there are no good games
in the public domain, write one.  It seems you think there are no good
games to buy either. Born-again Christinas also think people are
inherently worthless without divine intervention.  I think just the
opposite..

>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.

Perhaps what we need is a software welfare system.  You submit a
financial aid form to Lattice, and they give you a Student Loan Compiler
that you pay for after you graduate, but that would be really complicated.

If you DID have an extra $200, would you spend it on the compiler or
do you have other priorities?

>   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.)
>
>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......

Perhaps I find the artwork quite appealing.  Its very Escher-like.  Some
of the best games are simple.  Who would have an attention span long
enough for a game like checkers?  I can already win Marble Madness every
time I play it, but I still like it.  Perhaps it has to do with a child-
hood fascination with marbles, gravity, and kinetic sculpture.  And no,
I wouldn't spend $50 for it.  I said I was looking for a USED copy.  But
perhaps your attention span isn't long enough for you to fully read
my original posting.

At least, Robert, even though I disagree with your attitudes toward
piracy, you have given thought to your position.  Perhaps with more
thinking and more time one of us will change our minds (again).

| Bob Richardson     (or, for you UNIX buffs: bob@jacobs.cs.orst.edu) |
| 218 NW 21st #2           Corvallis, OR  97330          503-758-5018 |
|     "They can't afford to pay their taxes... There must be too      |
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