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From: galpin@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Knight of the Mystic Sword)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Pirates and swapware
Summary: The point about serial number protection
Message-ID: <4900@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 90 03:45:37 GMT
References: <1990Jun25.104017.803@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <31356@cup.portal.com> <1990Jul4.064216.21027@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
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I think that this discussion about serial number protection on the Amiga is
quite ridiculous. Even if one does not agree that this method of copy-protection
would be an inconvienience, that determined pirates would find clever ways of
bypassing even the most stringent of protection schemes, and that the addition 
of some standard form of serial number protection would cost extra $$$ that
people would not be willing to spend....

	THERE ARE OVER 1 MILLION AMIGA's OUT THERE WITHOUT SUCH A SCHEME!

Can you really expect application programmers to begin developing Amiga
software that uses this kind of protection when there would be very few users
that actually have such a scheme installed? I find it hard to believe that
people consider this a serious discussion. If C= had done it in 1985, then
it might mean something.. but .. despite the ineffectiveness of such a policy
due to persistent pirates (yes.. I call them pirates because I define a thief
to be someone who steals something that directly deprives another individual
of a product, while a pirate derives the creator/developer of their rightful
revenue) :-)  I see no way of actually implementing such a scheme, so such
a discussion seems trivial.

The reason that more developers don't develop for the Amiga is..

1) There isn't a very large user base (especially in the US)
2) The Amiga market demands lower pricing then the IBM/MAC market
3) Most users of the Amiga do not buy it for advanced business applications

The Wordperfect people (in a candid discussion) told me that sales simply
weren't good enough to keep programmers involved in the development of
Amiga WP 5.0.. which would allow the use of fonts like Macintosh WP. 
This is
not just because of piracy.. but because many users don't need a high end 
word processor, so they choose one of the flashier Amiga word processors 
that support graphics and are less costly.

I would LOVE to see Microsoft (despite AmigaBASIC), Lotus, Ashton-Tate, or
Borland develop for the Amiga.. but I don't see it happening.
A Borland representative explained to me that Borland was only planning to
develop for MS-DOS in the near future (not even Macintosh), because the base
of MS-DOS machines is SO large.

So.. C= sell a couple million more Amigas.. and maybe we will finally see some
of these companies change their mind. :-)

Much of this is opinion loosely based on fact.. direct flames to alt.flame.

-Dan 

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