Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ncar!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: software piracy (was "Interactive and me")
Summary: seems like the wrong attitude
Message-ID: <1990Jul13.231942.14009@ico.isc.com>
Date: 13 Jul 90 23:19:42 GMT
References: <3126@rsiatl.UUCP> <1990Jul11.164044.7241@sco.COM>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 42

jim@sco.COM (Jim Sullivan) writes:
> ...People steal software and serialization
> codes are an attempt to prevent people from stealing software...

We all understand that already.  The questions are (a) Do the keys actually
prevent people from stealing? and (b) Are they worth the trouble they (can)
cause?

> Software piracy exists and until the ethics and morals of the software user
> community improve, companies will have to go to serialization codes and such
> to try and prevent software piracy...

I find this attitude very unsettling.  I don't believe the "ethics and
morals" of the software community are any better or worse than the world at
large.  Moreover, and my main complaint: *Even if they are worse* this is
no way to talk to users!  This is not the proper attitude for going into a
business relationship.  It's one thing to say, "I'm providing a product to
you and I expect you to pay me for it."  Caution in business dealings is
wise.  But the attitude above is more like "I think you're going to try to
cheat me, so I'm taking pre-emptive action."

>...If anyone has a better idea of how to
> prevent multiple copies of the software to be installed, then please, present
> their solution.

That's an interesting question, but perhaps we should back up a bit and get
some background information:
	- What is the level of "software pirating"?  Sure, it happens...
	  but how much?
	- What are the most common forms of pirating?  E.g., is it single
	  system, installed once then given to a friend?  Single license
	  used on multiple machines in a company?  Resellers copying
	  systems and selling black-market copies as if they were
	  originals?
Answers to these two questions would let us evaluate piracy-prevention
mechanisms.  The first tells us how much revenue might be lost; it gives an
order-of-magnitude idea of how hard to try.  The second tells us criteria
against which any new scheme must be judged.  (Additional criteria include,
of course, how much and what kind of a burden it puts on users.)
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com  -or-  ico!rcd          (303)449-2870
   ...Reality is neat!  It works even if you don't believe in it!