Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu.edu!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!usc!apple!vsi1!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Pirates and swapware Message-ID: <1990Jul4.064216.21027@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 4 Jul 90 06:42:16 GMT References: <90U702Unb2ZK01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <1990Jun25.104017.803@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <31356@cup.portal.com> Distribution: na Organization: SF Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 63 FelineGrace@cup.portal.com writes: >Kent, what about the guy who has multiple amigas? Does he have to >buy multiple copies under your hardware protection scheme? Two points of view on this: first, there isn't really that much need for one person to be able to run one piece of software on more than one machine in the same house. If I want to play the game, and want my kid to play the game, on two computers, both at the same time, then I feel obliged to buy two copies! I am, after all, getting two complete customers' worth of use out of the software. Despite the above, I think most vendors would be willing to give you copies for more than one machine for which you can provide proof of common ownership at a very steep discount, about the price of a typical upgrade, just because it is more money for them, you only need one set of docs/fancy packaging, and you really do have the choice of taking turns playing the one copy if they won't sell you a second one cheap. >How about demos at a friend's house, at a computer club, at a show? Lots >of 'legitimate' uses are affected by the '1 copy per machine' rule. As I noted in a posting, I just carry my Amiga to club meetings, no problem! I think you can play a friend's games at his house, and invite him to your house to play your games; that's not a heavy price to play for a better software market. At a show, either you are playing the showperson's demo copy of the game, on his machine(s), or you are the showperson, and have brought along some (and therefore your) machine anyway. Not too much need for you to take your favorite game to a show to play on the newer, spiffier Amiga 4000; go to your dealer and play his sales copy on his machine. >It isn't the way I want th world to compute, nosirree. And I think >CBM's marketing people to tell any interested engineers that CBM isn't >going to be interested in producing such machines since they won't sell. Well, the mainframes are all serialized, and IBM isn't having the business slump you seem to expect. What I notice is that every problem that is brought up has a solution, but that people would rather live with the rotten software market the Amiga has than to suffer what are after all very modest inconveniences. I find the lack of robust business software for the Amiga a _major_ inconvenience, and ease of piracy the most obvious cause. >This humble opinion brought to you by: >Dana Bourgeois @ cup.portal.com > >"I don't like pirates but the solution shouldn't be worse than the problem >now should it?" - me It wouldn't be, but too many people are unwilling to take an unprejudiced view of the proposal, attempting to find ways to make it work rather than reasons why it can't possibly work. And by the way, as a paying customer at Portal, can't you convince them to junk that garbage editor so you can fix damaged lines? Yuk! Talk about inconvenience! Kent, the man from xanth.