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From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copy protection (was Re: Awesome! No I am Pi**ed!)
Message-ID: <2332@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 4 Dec 90 19:42:15 GMT
Lines: 55
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <49144@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, v092mgp5@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott K Wood) writes:
>In article <JKH.90Dec3092012@bambam.pcs.com>, jkh@bambam.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes...
>     In your initial message you say that pirates are simply the 
>scapegoats for the horrid copy-protection found on some software.  Who 
>is to blame then?  I personally see only the pirates at fault.  
>Without them, companys would have never had a reason to use 
>copy-protection in the first place.

Right, but they don't have a reason to use it now, since it has been shown over
and over again to be innefective in stopping theft.

>>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.
>
>     "Voting with your pocketbook" doesn't change the fact that 
>companies have to deal with pirates.

Again, right, except that they are not dealing with pirates, or at least not
effectively.

>  In fact, buy not purchasing a 
>useful piece of software simply because of copy-protection is hurting 
>the developer as much as the pirates are.

It is also sending a message to the developers that I am tired of being classed
as a crook and forced to put up with copy protection garbage just to run
something. I have not seen a program that is so useful that I have to have it,
and copy/theft protection is the showstopper when it comes to the purchase
decision.

>  It is going to be a LONG 
>time before copy-protection disappears, especially in the game arena, 
>from the Amiga marketplace.

Then it will be a long time before I buy from those who seek to inconvenience
me and make their product less useful in a futile attempt to stop theft. If
protection actually worked, I would reconsider my position, but I can tell you
that there are forms of protection that are SO obnoxious, that I would still
not be buying everything that was otherwise good.

As for the poor developer/publisher in all this.. yes, I have sympathy for you.
I know it hurts to see your efforts stolen. I wholeheartedly support you in
your fight against software thieves. I do, however, appeal to you to try
something else or stop worrying about it.

-larry

--
The only things to survive a nuclear war will be cockroaches and IBM PCs.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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