Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!halley!san
From: san@halley.UUCP (Steve Sanderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software theives
Message-ID: <574@halley.UUCP>
Date: 25 Aug 89 16:15:51 GMT
References: <30706@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <6846@rpi.edu> <2361@raspail.cdcnet.cdc.com> <6865@rpi.edu>
Reply-To: san@halley.UUCP (Steve Sanderson)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tandem Computers, Austin, TX
Lines: 36

In article <6865@rpi.edu> kudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) writes:
>I don't care who copies what; as far as I'm concerned, unless
>something physical is stolen there is no problem- no one loses
>anything except the publisher, and that only theoretically.

About your comment that only the publisher loses money...
Well it is true that the publisher loses money, so does the developer.
A close friend of mine and I went out and bought the original Amigas when
they were first released, with our own savings, and spent our own private
time developing three packages to be sold for the *very new* Amiga market
because we both believed that the Amiga had a lot to offer and we sincerely
wanted it to succeed.

Well... after finding out that our product was stolen/copied illegally much
more than it was sold, it really hurt me.  I had spent a lot of effort
developing work which I believed in, not to get rich but just to make a
living and to be able to continue doing something I felt good about.
What I saw was that my personal work was not respected by a bunch of people,
that people would rather steal my work and argue legalities rather than
just respecting me and my work.  I am not some huge company, trying to
make megabucks, I'm not some shyster trying to rip someone off, I'm just
one guy trying to do some creative work at home, find people who appreciate
my work and get enough support to continue doing what I believe in.

Consequently, I've stopped developing for the Amiga because it appears to
me that what I need from people who would buy my software, i.e. honesty,
is not available enough around the Amiga.

As may be obvious, I'm bitter.  I'm disappointed that something with the
personal, grassroots activity around has so much of what I consider
dishonesty.


Steve Sanderson

halley!san@cs.utexas.edu