Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!macuni!sunc!ifarqhar
From: ifarqhar@sunc.mqcc.mq.oz.au (Ian Farquhar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A European point of view (LONG)
Keywords: Copy protection, games, breaking the OS
Message-ID: <875@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz>
Date: 12 Dec 90 04:04:23 GMT
References: <1990Dec6.185453.5684@cbnewsk.att.com> <1990Dec6.201824.13502@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz
Organization: Macquarie University, Sydney
Lines: 56

In article <1990Dec6.201824.13502@Neon.Stanford.EDU> espie@ibis.Stanford.EDU (Marc Espie) writes:
>If other people from other countries have further comments (what is the
>situation in your home country ?), that surely can be interesting.

Well, I'll bite.  I don't think many people in the US are quite aware of
the software situation outside, and what follows is a compilation of my
experiences with Australian software distributors.  If any other
Australians want to comment or correct, please feel free, but I doubt
that there are people who have not had many of the experiences I relate
below.

The situation in Australia is this:

Software costs between two and three times the US retail price.  As
such, buying software is a very expensive proposition.  Software is also
about three to six months behind, as it is shipped via sea-mail.

For this massive outlay of money, you are supposed to get user support.
The problem is that unless your problem is absolutely and completely
trivial ("I am sorry Sir, you insert the disk in the disk drive, not
into the power plug.  A terrible oversight that we failed to mention
this in the manual."), you will not get any help.  Most local
distributors have poor MS-DOS support, let alone Amiga support.  When I
once rang about an upgrade to a program (more on this later), I was asked
if the Amiga was IBM compatible.

Support from US distributors?  Well, some are good (I will mention
Innovatronics and Pixelations here as they are particularly good in my
experience).  However, most will simply refer you back to the local
distributor, who is probably going to be useless anyway.  BTW, don't
forget that this is costing $2 per minute in phone charges, so every
time they say "hold on while I transfer you to someone who may be able
to help you" you can hear money gushing away.  A US tech support person
has never ever called me back, and I have spoken to several people who
have had exactly the same experience.

Upgrades?  Rarely.  There are certain packages I am still trying to
upgrade.  And if you have to do it through the US distributor, you have
to pay in US currency, and it costs money for the currency conversion
and bank draft.  Besides, I have never once received an upgrade notice,
or indeed any of the things that they promise when you send in your
registration card.  Anything upgrades they do send come via sea-mail,
which can take weeks or months.

Australia is often portrayed as a pirate centre, and this I would not
deny.  I am not supporting pirates, they are theives, but there is
another side of the coin, and that is the distributors.  I feel that I
have been ripped off by them too.

Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, and do not represent those
            of Macquarie University.
--
Ian Farquhar                      Phone : 61 2 805-9404
Office of Computing Services      Fax   : 61 2 805-7433
Macquarie University  NSW  2109   Also  : 61 2 805-7205
Australia                         EMail : ifarqhar@suna.mqcc.mq.oz.au