Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ogicse!oregon!jmeissen
From: jmeissen@oregon.oacis.org (John Meissen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community.
Message-ID: <532@oregon.oacis.org>
Date: 14 Jun 90 18:27:03 GMT
References: <12457@shlump.nac.dec.com> <5900@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Organization: Oregon Advanced Computing Institute (OACIS), Beaverton, OR
Lines: 20


Lattice was always acutely aware of the problems of software piracy. Our
"unofficial" attitude, however, was that if someone was going to steal
software we would rather they stole ours than the competitor's. In 
general if someone "borrowed" a copy they probably were not going to
purchase a legitimate one anyway. And eventually, when they were in
a position to put out money, they would probably like to get the
documentation and support that went with a legitimate copy. When that
happened we prefered that they were already comfortable with ours,
rather than the competition's.

This doesn't mean that we condoned piracy, just that in general a stolen
copy didn't mean a lost sale because they probably weren't going to buy
it anyway. If you provide quality documentation and exceptional support
to legitimate users you will often get a sale out of a stolen copy anyway.
-- 
John Meissen .............................. Oregon Advanced Computing Institute
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