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From: jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Copy protection (was Re: Awesome! No I am Pi**ed!)
Message-ID: <JKH.90Dec3092012@bambam.pcs.com>
Date: 3 Dec 90 09:20:12 GMT
References: <BK.90Nov29222757@tadtec.uucp>
Sender: news@pcsbst.pcs.com
Organization: PCS Computer Systems, GmbH
Lines: 53
In-reply-to: bk@tadtec.uucp's message of 29 Nov 90 22:27:57 GMT

>Unfortunately software protection is here to stay (in Europe anyway) until the>cracking scene realises they are strangling the life out of small software
>houses that produce most of the innovative games we see today and causing
>the large ones to go for the License/Hype approach :-(.

Well.. First off, let me say that I buy all my games. I buy them all
from the States (and I live in Germany), paying shipping and 18%
import tax just to make sure that I get them as copy-protect-free as
I possibly can. I dislike copy protection for the simple reasons that
a) I am paranoid in the extreme about not being able to back up my data
and b) I don't like the sounds that copy protected games cause my
drives to make. I am an engineer, so I know that the chances of a
copy protected game "ruining" my drives is small, but I know that the
noises F19 Stealth (from the U.K.) elicits from my drive cannot possibly
be healty, either.

Second, I disagree that pirates are the sole reason behind the problems
in the software publishing industry; they're simply convenient scapegoats.

There are lots of other ways to make one's software unpalatable to
pirates than by resorting to protection schemes that only penalize
your legitimate customers. One of these ways is to make the game
complex enough that printed documentation is basically a must. This
seems to be happening anyway as user's tastes turn to more challanging
games. Another technique is the code wheel or manual page lookup
protection. I have yet to hear about a pirated game being distributed
with xerox'd documentation and/or duplicated code wheels! (and if any cases
of this do exist, I'm sure they're very very rare). I have seem several
games that use both copy protection AND some form of password protection,
which is basically simple overkill. I seriously doubt that I will
buy anything from Digital Integration or the U.K. Microprose branch
after seeing what they did with "F16 Combat Pilot" and "F19 Stealth".
I paid good money for both games and don't appreciate being pissed off
by rabid copy protection paranoia. CinemaWare's "Wings" and "It came
from the desert (I and II)" have been very user friendly to me (no
copy protection, simple manual lookup) and I have every intention
of purchasing more of their products in the future. I know many
others who feel the same way. So, already two manufactures have
lost what would very probably be several hundred dollars worth of
future sales from me alone, simply because they went overboard.
Assume that I'm not alone in feeling this way and you begin to see
another very large reason why some publishers are suffering.

Rabid copy protection is sort of like Bush's war on drugs:
"We know that what we're doing isn't stopping anybody, but we're going to
do it anyway."

I do not agree with software piracy and do not support it. I also feel
perfectly justified in voting with my pocketbook when some manufacturer
sells me a product that is unjustifyably hard to use.

Enough said.

					Jordan