Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc! From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Pirating CD-ROMS Keywords: CD-ROM Message-ID: <2401@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> Date: 11 Dec 90 21:02:32 GMT Lines: 36 Return-Path: To: van-bc!rnews In <1990Dec11.205920.12986@daffy.cs.wisc.edu>, pochron@cat52.cs.wisc.edu (David Pochron) writes: >Perhaps one of the reasons game developers are so hot on CD-ROM technology >is it is impossible to pirate a CD-ROM - too much inforation stored there, >even for a hard drive. Well, that isn't exactly true. There are hard drives available that could hold the contents of at least 2 absolutely FULL CD-ROM. Not only that, but the hard drives can be set up so that they use the appropriate file system. Your point is well taken though. It just isn't going to be the same for the thieves. No more collecting copies of 300-400 programs, just to be able to say they have them. >IC ROMs can, and have been, pirated. I suspect by 1995 (if the game industry >doesn't go bust again) every game on the market will use a CD-ROM - 0% loss >of sales to piracy. Only "borrowing" can hurt sales then... Borrowing never really hurts. Thing is, if you borrow a game, and play it, you will either like it enough to buy, or you will not. You might like it, but feel that it is too easy, or you might really hate it. If you don't buy, consider the reason. CD-ROM is as close to perfect copy protection as we have right now, and it means that the vendor can't whine about piracy being the reason sales are down. Perhaps one or two of them might even get the idea that the product is crap, or overpriced, or both. I have a feeling that a lot of the decrease in sales after the first release of a product is sometimes due as much to the word getting around about it, as it is to any other reason. -larry -- The only things to survive a nuclear war will be cockroaches and IBM PCs. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+