Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!ucscc!gorn!filbo
From: filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Pirates and swapware
Message-ID: <203.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Date: 30 Jun 90 03:48:43 GMT
References: <1990Jun26.090628.18273@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Organization: R Pentomino
Lines: 73
X-Claimer: I >am< R Pentomino!

In <1990Jun26.090628.18273@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Kent Paul Dolan wrote:
>I've been programming, and had my head in the real world of computing,
>from the general immaturity of your reply, a bit longer than you've
>been alive.  Stick _your_ head into the real world, where software
>piracy bankrupts real companies whose software provides a real service
>now lost to the Amiga user community, dissuades other companies from
>publishing in the Amiga market, thus depriving us of good products,
>and makes us all suspect as pirates, giving us the joys of copy
>protected Amiga software that dies when the floppy disk wears out.

I have a big problem with this method.  Suppose my business depends on a
piece of software.  The publisher of this software goes out of business.
I have to replace my computer for some reason -- it dies, is stolen,
whatever.  Now what?  I have no recourse, no way to get that software
running on the new system -- other than breaking the protection or
labeling the new system with the old one's identification.  This is
unacceptable.  The same problem comes with current copy protection
schemes, but at least there are ways around the problem.  With
disk-based protection, I can probably get a copy program or device that
will back up the disk.  With word-in-the-manual, I can back the manual
up if I really need to.

Big-systems software protected in this fashion are not subject to this
problem only because there is a higher level of confidence in the
publishers of the software.  This is not to say that they won't go out
of business, etc., but that if they do, they will probably clean up
after themselves -- hand out free keys, sell their licensing business to
another firm, or whatever.

Another reason this doesn't translate well from big systems was pointed
out by another poster.  It can be broken -- anything can be broken.  It
is successful on big systems not because of technical difficulty in
defeating it, but due to the consequences AND LIKELIHOOD of getting
caught.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Understand this: some people are always going to pirate; they will go to
any length to do it.  Witness the pirate clubs we're told of in Europe.
(Let's not kid ourselves, anyway.  I was a member of one in the US; I
"released" a couple of Apple games myself, way back in the dark ages.
The only reason we, as American Amiga users, can point the finger at
Europe is that there are more Amigas over there so the piracy "action"
is more obvious).  The dedicated pirates will defeat the protection and
make the software available to more casual pirates.

Given this, what is the best way to prevent piracy?  Discourage the
dedicated pirate by making it too easy.  Discourage the casual pirate by
playing on his morals:

For games: use very simple disk-based protection.  If the protection
check fails, start up with a banner describing how to buy the product --
where to write or call, how much, etc.  Go into a demo mode.  Allow the
game to be fully played once, or for a short time, depending on the type
of game.  Then give the option to keep playing by entering a string such
as "I AM A PIRATE AND A SCUM".  The point is to make the protection too
trivial to bother with, for a heavy-duty pirate, and to draw the casual
pirate's attention to the fact that it IS commercial software and he IS
pirating.

For non-games: just don't protect it.  Have a good manual, support and
upgrade policies and quit whining because KAPTIN H00K has a pirated copy
of your software (and every other program ever released -- none of which
he knows how to use).  If you must, include a small play-on-their-morals
like an opening screen that reads "THANK YOU FOR PURCHASING
SuperDuperPooperScooperCalc".  No more.  >Bela<

sigh, knew I shouldn't have replied to this.  I don't really want to
foster this flame war.  I just can't watch this blindness.

Bela Lubkin   * *   //  filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us   Why do I mention CI$??
     @      * *    //  belal@sco.com  ...ucbvax!ucscc!{gorn!filbo,sco!belal}
R Pentomino   *  \X/  Filbo @ Pyrzqxgl +1 408-476-4633, XBBS +1 408-476-4945