Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!gsm From: gsm@sequoia.execu.com (Scott Mather) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: Copy protection for MS Windows applications Message-ID: <24981@sequoia.execu.com> Date: 26 Sep 90 20:29:01 GMT References: <24605@sequoia.execu.com> Organization: Execucom Systems Corp. Lines: 68 In article medici@dorm.rutgers.edu (Mark Medici) writes: >cb@sequoia.execu.com (Christopher D. Brown) writes: > >>I hate copy protection but we must still use it in select >>markets. The vendor that supplies our MS DOS copy protection >>and LAN user count control does not (yet?) do Windows. Are >>the any vendors addressing copy/LAN protection for MS Windows? >>"Yes"s (if any) will be summarized. > >What markets would they be? Except for games, I can't understand why ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ >any one market would be more succesptible to pirating than others. If >your products offer a good value, are well supported, and backed by an [list of reasons supporting apparent belief that copy protection should never be tolerated, deleted] I acknowledge that you have covered perhaps 1% of the BIG list of reasons for why copy protection is bad. Nevertheless, in your opening statement you acknowledge that at least one market may have a valid reason for CP. Has it occurred to you that black/white absolute statements rarely have much merit? It should come as no surprise that you do not have knowledge about ALL of the software market niches that there are in the world. You also shouldn't be surprised to find out that there are undoubtedly many niche markets where CP is a necessary evil. This may explain the fact that companies selling CP technology STILL EXIST! The intricacies of the markets which we serve that REQUIRE CP (notice that the MARKET requires the CP, not that WE require the CP) are too complex to detail. However, please consider the effects that differing interpretations of the rights to intellectual property exist around the world has on your absolute approach to CP. Not all legal systems, nor cultures, nor business environments, nor governments in the world mimic our own. I would love to just trust everyone in the entire world, but business realities just don't jibe with my desire. The market which we serve, in this instance, is highly specialized and is non-US. Please, if anyone has any info on CP, let me know. Thank You Scott Mather 512-327-7070 >update policy that rewards registered users (instead of alienating >them), pirating should be no greater an issue for you than anyone >else. > >Excluding games (which have, unfortunately, always been the most >pirated software around), most mature users will eventually purchase >legal copies of all the software they use, as long as the cost of the >software represents a fair value. If one product is being pirated >more than another, perhaps its value has been overestimated. The >market ultimately decides the value of software, artifically high >prices notwithstanding. > >The microlabs I run at Rutgers have a policy that excludes software >that uses copy protection of any form, or LAN metering that >complicates server installation for its own sake. We, and I believe >most network administrators, implement our own anti-pirating policies >and mechanisms. > >-- >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Mark Medici/SysProg3 * Rutgers University/CCIS * medici@elbereth.rutgers.edu >----------------------------------------------------------------------------