Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seas.gwu.edu!rjohnson
From: rjohnson@seas.gwu.edu (Ray Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Software piracy
Message-ID: <1954@sparko.gwu.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 90 00:03:11 GMT
References: <3914@moondance.cs.uq.oz.au> <56447.2673B586@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG> <9243@paperboy.OSF.ORG> <41882@apple.Apple.COM> <36990@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <25381@cs.yale.edu>
Reply-To: rjohnson@seas.gwu.edu ()
Organization: The George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Lines: 33


In watching this thread there is on argument I haven't seen brought
up on the side of piracy.  Many people copy so many programs that 
they could never really use them all.  After all does someone who
has Word, MacWrite, WordPerfect and WriteNow use all of these progams
to write thier papers on?  So what do they do with all of these
programs that are just filling up space?

Some people have told me in the past that they are just 'shopping'
so to speak.  By copying the software they can learn to use various
programs completly and therefore have a better basis for determining
what to purchase.  It is hard to compare software by looking on the
back of shrink wrapped boxes and read reviews written by someone whos
opinion may mean nothing to you.  These same people often then buy
the product so that they can have company suport and instant access
to upgrades and bug fixes.

I think the ideal would be for the companies to produce demo versions
of thier products that do something like print thier logo on the
output.  Some companies do this now and this is enough to sastifiy
many would be piraters.

Furthermore, I don't think its the hacker that copies everything
he sees that causes the most problems.  It's the companies (or
sometimes governments) that copy programs for use by thier entire
company that cause the most problems.  It is this case that we are
talking about million dollar losses expecially in instances where
it is encouraged by forign governments or top managment.

-- 
Ray Johnson
Internet: rjohnson@gwusun.gwu.edu       Phone: (202)994-6853
The George Washington University