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From: capit@peun11.uucp (Capitain)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Shareware Mac
Message-ID: <705@nixpbe.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 89 15:10:26 GMT
References: <641@nixpbe.UUCP> <1989Nov26.172437.10709@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <6997@portia.Stanford.EDU> <5466@orca.WV.TEK.COM> <3268@brazos.Rice.edu> <2716@infmx.UUCP> <3352@brazos.Rice.edu>
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Hi, I'm the one who offered the Shareware Emulator. Our backbone in
the US was out of order for the last weeks, so I missed the beginning of
this debate. But now we are back, and I have some comments on various
articles. I didn't include copies of all statements because of the length
of the article.

> I'm sorry for posting this here but my reply to the 'sender' just bounced.

This may be due to the problems with our backbone. But I received mail
only from Europe yet. Could someone please try to mail again to check the
connection?

> The effort could be better expended. Let's face it: it's hard to
> write an emulator like this. It's taken Dave Small a long time to get
> his working as well as it does.

If I had to start from scratch, it would be very hard work, indeed. But as
I mentioned in my first letter, the emulator is ready. It has been on the
market in Europe since 1987. The only thing I have to do is to re-develop
some utilities around the emulator, which haven't been written by myself.
(For example tools for configuring the emulator, transferring software from
the Mac to the ST, and so on...)

> You should not go out and write a share-ware version of someone's
> package IF you are *worried* about hurting their business. My point is that,
> given the very small size of the ST market, we *should* be worried about
> GBS's future. I'm not saying that it is morally wrong to write a shareware
> Mac emulator; I'm just saying that writing it will hurt GBS, and given
> the small size of GBS and the quality of their products, it is not in any
> ST user's interests to hurt them.

I was very surprised about how much you were concerned with the future of
GBS (with respect to the shareware emulator, of course). I'd really like to
see any comments from Dave Small on the whole topic. In the past, he hasn't
been too shy to comment on Aladin...
Besides: I'm a small (one-man-part-time-)"company" too.

> Yes, I'm sure there would be interest in a good shareware MAC emulator..
> But Dave Small has established the standards here for what a MAC emulator
> should do, and how it should perform...
> (Playing "Devil's Advocate",) do you think you can compete with the Spectre
> Mac emulator..?
 
As I said in my first letter, I know the emulator I'm offering is not
state-of-the-art, because it supports only the 64K Roms and it can't read
Original Mac Disks. Otherwise, it would be shareware. I think there
wouldn't be much harm to Spectre GCR. But again, I'd like to hear from
Dave.

> So, YES I will support the ALADIN, for the reasons I stated above,
> because I've seen an earlier ALADIN version running, and because
> Germans have proved they love the ST and their software is almost
> perfect (Tempus, Modula-2,LABEL-EXPRESS)

Although the shareware emulator IS the emulator of the ALADIN product, it
will be named different.

> In order not to violate Apple's copyrights, ROMS must be made available
> for this guy by way of a cartridge.

Correct. You'll have to get the ROMs on a cartridge to be able to use the
emulator. (See my first letter.)

> In fairness to David Small and as an obvious business move, don't make the
> cartridge steal his thunder. (His software has checks to make sure the ROMS 
> are in one of his cartridges and aren't EPROMS. Making a cartridge to get 
> around this like the Discovery cartridge tries to results only in OUTRIGHT 
> PIRACY of his software for use with the alternate cartridge. Also, if the 
> cartridge is compatible, VIRTUALLY NO ONE WILL EVER  USE THE SHAREWARE 
> SOFTWARE OR PAY THE FEE: they'll just use his software and hurt his business
> AND yours.)

I'm absolutely not planning to pirate anybody's software!!! The emulator
will not allow anybody to run Spectre without the Spectre's cartridge!!!
This is a product totally of its own, developed by myself without ever
looking at any code of Dave Small! (I prefer my own and Apple's code.)

> Spectre is reasonably priced and therefore a shareware version is not
> going to be particularly competitive and therefore should be expected
> to be poorly maintained.  Thus substituting a poor piece of work for a
> good piece of work.

Have you ever seen or heard of ALADIN? How can you talk about it as
"a poor piece of work" ???

> The only way that "small" enters the picture is that a small business is
> less able to afford to defend itself against predatory behavior. 

That's exactly why the German company isn't selling ALADIN any more: because
they couldn't afford defending themselves against Apple Germany. The trials
would have been too expensive.

> According to press reports, the Aladin system included illegal copies of
> the Macintosh ROMs, and Apple shot the product down. The developers have
> every right to convert their work into a legal product which Apple has no
> way to affect. DAVID SMALL HAD TO DO THIS! Early versions of the Magic Sac
> project were altered so that only legal Mac ROMs could be used, and the
> ROMs must be physically present (not illegally copied on disk, or
> whatever). He WAS stomped on by Apple. THAT is why he NOW has no trouble
> with Apple: he altered what might have been an illegal product into what
> is demonstrably legal. To me it makes more sense for the Aladin group to
> do likewise and to keep the product commercial, than to convert the system
> to just an illegal shareware system rather than an illegal product. I
> actually give them the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they will
> take the cartridge-and-ROM route to legality anyway, despite a lack of anu
> such indication : the mail suggested making Aladin more-or-less as-is
> shareware - which would certainly be illegal and upon which Apple would
> certainly stomp.
> ...
> From published reports, he WAS not pleased with the Discovery cartridge
> "feature", nor with the nature of Aladin's competition (since they used
> on-disk copies of the ROMs and he couldn't).

We NEVER used on-disk copies of the Roms! I don't know which press you're
reading and where they get their information from, but your's is certainly
false!
There were two trials against Aladin (1987 and 1989). In both trials Apple
Germany went to the judge with ridiculous "facts" about Aladin and the Mac.
Did you know, for example, that the "Finder" is responsible for the User
Interface of the Mac, because it's the software, which draws windows,
dialog boxes etc...? Apple Germany used informations of this kind in the
court. But - again - we just couldn't afford the trials. The sum in
dispute has been 3,000,000 DM.
There was a pirated version of Aladin in 1987, which had the Roms on disk.
(There have been pirated versions of Magic Sac and Spectre 1.75 too.)
But certainly it wasn't we who pirated our own software. Since then, Aladin
hasn't been pirated anymore because of a new copy protection scheme.

Is it true, that Dave Small has got troubles with Apple USA? If so, I'd
like to know more about it (sorry Dave, asking you again).

> This other guy (I wish I knew his name! I'm not intentionally being
> insulting) got stomped on by Apple, and was put out of business.

Here he is:

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