Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!uplherc!esunix!bambam!suns!pashdown From: pashdown@suns.es.COM@bambam.UUCP (Pete Ashdown) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: "Demos" and piracy Message-ID: <1779@bambam.UUCP> Date: 12 Jul 90 14:20:30 GMT References: Sender: news@bambam.UUCP Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah Lines: 67 mofo@bucsf.bu.edu (jason greene) writes: >While the topic of PIRACY is so damned popular and flame-warranting... Isn't it always. What is amazing is that despite Marco's, Perry's, and others constant ranting about it, a definite solution is never reached. Ah well.. >I have an interesting question. If there are so many people against even >the smallest piracy (copying your friend's Marble Madness or something), >how can these same people incessantly search for "The Red Sector demo" or >the "Champs demo" or whatever others there are. >I have seen many of these "demos" and they are indeed, quite impressive >both in graphics and sound. HOWEVER, these "demos" are stuck on the boot >block of pirated disks by pirates. These pirates are not your neighborhood >copiers who use Marauder II to no end; these are juvenile europeans who use >poor english and spend all their time trying to "crack" the latest amiga >GAME. Wrong. These demos are created for the sole purpose of showing of the programmer's prowess to the other demo-creators. It is true that man 'cracked' programs have similar 'boot-demos', but all of the demos I have seen available on FTP sites are just as legitimate as the 'Juggler-Demo'. Look at some of the Fairlight demos. These guys put out two-disk masterpieces which are far from 'boot-demos'. I've also seen a disk magazine they produce, with virtually NO piracy information contained. They had a nice article on ray-tracing as well as some articles by authors of demos describing their inspiration. >Most often these demos are made by somewhat skilled European programmers >who want games for themselves, so they "contribute" these "demos" to the >various pirate groups to use. IE, the programmers of the demos are most >often pirates themselves. Posters to the net are also people who have numerous traffic tickets and have photocopied and taped copyrighted material. Does that mean you discard everything they do so you won't get 'infected' with a crime spree? I have never heard of someone contributing a demo to another group just so they could get a game. Usually the group does all their own programming. Whether they program demos just for the competition (there are lots of demo contests in Europe, with hardware prizes, etc..) or for a 'crack', they always do it themselves. >What is most ridiculous is the many FTP sites that carry these demos, and >that people on the net constantly ask about them. And why shouldn't we? The European demos usually stomp the Badge demos into the ground. We love to show off the Amiga and demos do it better than anything else. >I think that supporting these demos is akin to supporting the pirates >themselves, and should be stopped. Are the pirates getting any money off of this? Are they even gaining any notoriety of this? I think demo writing is one of the few good things that has come out of the pirate community. Only an imbecile would say that downloading their demos is supporting piracy. Why don't we get rid of all the hypodermic needles, because people are using them for heroin? >Jason Pete "I don't practice what I preach, because I'm not the type of person I'm preaching to." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs Ads:Amiga,AtariGames,Lynx,HP48SX,Trek,ThePolice,SkinnyPuppy,TMBG,Ministry -> Pete Ashdown [pashdown@esunix.es.COM] [...utah-cs!esunix!pashdown] <-