Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!corpane!sparks
From: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: ID (P)ROMs (was: Pirates and swapware)
Message-ID: <2497@corpane.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jul 90 13:30:15 GMT
References: <90U702Unb2ZK01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com| <18721@well.sf.ca.us> <25535@usc.edu> <3338@crash.cts.com>
Organization: Corpane Industries, Inc., Louisville Ky
Lines: 41

hrlaser@crash.cts.com (Harv Laser) writes:


|Micropro did something real interesting a couple years ago. They took out
|full page ads in PC World and that ilk and announced the "WordStar
|Upgrade Amnesty Plan."

|They'd just released a new MAJOR upgrade of WordStar (can't remember
|which version it was) which listed for $495.00.  They would sell this
|upgrade (the FULL sales package - box, manuals, buncha disks, warranty,
|etc.) to anyone who provided a serial number from ANY older version of
|WordStar, for $79.95.  YOu edidn't have to send in any old-version disks,
|you didn't have to send in _anything_ except a remittance and a serial
|number. 

|I have no idea how their amnesty upgrade turned out nor how many new
|sales it generated (I'd like to know these things) but it was a novel
|approach to the old problem . BTW, WordStar's serial number appears
|onscreen each time any version of the program is run so one didn't even
|have to have any original label disks to get the number... it was 
|obviously an appeal to get WordStar pirates to go legit and buy the
|real thing.  I've never seen this done before or since by any software
|company.


Sheesh! I bet people were just reading the serial numbers off of their friends
and companies copies and turning them in just to get the special low price.

I know I would have. That doesn't mean I am a pirate, just a smart shopper. 
So you can't legitimately use the numbers of people who 'turned themselves in' 
as a count of how many pirated versions of WordStar were out there. If someone
offers to sell you a $495 program for $75, and all you have to do is send in
the serial number of one of their packages, hell, thousands of people will
just ask their friends "Hey Bob, what the serial number off of your Wordstar
package?"... Or they will peek at the number on their package at work.


-- 
John Sparks         |                                 | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 2400bps. 
sparks@corpane.UUCP |                                 | PH: (502) 968-DISK
A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. - Ogden Nash