Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!emory!rsiatl!jgd From: jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: copy protection Message-ID: <6207@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> Date: 29 Jan 91 09:04:38 GMT References: <9101272223.AA08327@desktalk.com> Organization: Rapid Deployment Systems (making go-fast things and things that-go fast) Lines: 190 rlg@BIOBIO.DESKTALK.COM (Richard L. Gralnik) writes: >Fellow networkers, >While I agree that copy protection can make life less than fun for an >administrator trying to make sure he/she restores the correct unique >set of floppies on a trashed machine, I don't understand why people >feel the vendor has no right to protect their (usually considerable) >investment in product development from rip-off artists. And note that >that term includes offices where everyone passes a copy around as much >as people who take the floppies home overnight to make one for their >personal use. >If you want to live on share-ware go ahead, but to say that people >should boycott a company that tries to keep you from making unauthorized >copies of their software is like saying you shouldn't go to the >supermarket because they prosecute shoplifters. NO!! This is like saying that the supermarket prosecutes every customer because they have a paranoia based on an imagined but not detected thief. As the owner of a small software and (real soon to be) hardware company, I gotta comment. On my soapbox. The reason copy protection of any kind is obscene is that it is merely a symptom of an attitude disease in the vendor company. Instead of viewing the customer as the source of his wealth and cultivating him accordingly, the vendor views the customer as simply a source of money who is to be milked to the extent possible. Ever notice how copy protection-using vendors talk about those evil pirates with the same disgusted tone reserved for cheating spouses, child rapers and politicians? It has nothing to do with a few disks being passed around. Wealth in a business context means far more than the money collected on a sale. Business wealth means sales revenues, customer good will, word-of mouth advertising, followon sales, upgrade and new product purchases, customer understanding when bugs and/or bad features are found (which may mean the difference between a polite phone call to customer support and a massive flamage to this net and/or every magazine they can address a letter to,) tolerance of corporate mistakes by regulators, and (close to the hearts of the protectionists) customer reporting of flagrant copyright or contract violations. It really is an attitude problem on the part of the vendor. I look upon incidental copying (which I define as the insignificant copying to take home, to give to a friend or similiar activity.) as absolutely free advertising. If I offer good customer support, fair pricing, and a decent upgrade policy, so-called "incidental pirates" will either grow bored with the program or will buy a package in order to get all the above benefits. And if they don't buy? Well, I've not really lost anything because that person probably would not have bought in any event and it is not like he had reached in my pocket and taken money out. I simply failed to sell this person. I do, of course, have serious problems with real piracy, such as corporate copying or pirate resellers or bulk give-aways. But we have more than adequate legal remedies to address these problems. If I treat my customers as collegues and trusted friends instead of money pits, it is likely that one of them will call and report large scale piracy. After all, it is in all our benefits that we all stay around over the long term. Didya ever notice that there is usually an inverse relationship between the quality of software and the degree of copy protection. Some of the absolutely worst software I've ever used (EE Designer) was a heavily protected CAD package. This package was written in MS BASIC, for christsake. Yet the graphics device driver which contains the copy protection code employs a multitasker to allow the copy protection dongle to be checked in real time (couldn't have a *paying customer* start the program and then *gasp* switch the dongle to another machine so that work could continue while the first PC drives a plotter for 6 hours.) Conversely, some of the best software (OrCad, WordPerfect) have absolutely no protection. Indeed, WordPerfect will take a support call on their 800 number from so-called pirates. The original source of this thread, SCO Unix is a classic example. Their Unix implementation is IHMO a piece of shit. Not only is it buggy in general, the copy protection locks up the machine if it thinks it discoverd a *GASP* pirate. No warnings, no controlled shutdown, just a lockup. It's the company's Deputy Dipshit instinct revealing itself. While SCO is huddling in their hovels in an emotional corporate crisis, companies like IBM who DO understand customers (and coincidently how to make money from them) are giving RS/6000s with nary a sign of copy protection (yet, at least) to potential customers. Wonder whether there are now more AIX or SCO Unix application platforms out there now? I have one client who is a MAJOR SCO VAR and reseller drop SCO and go with AIX because of this crap. I wonder how many more customers are out there? Is the small system Unix market going to hand the market to IBM? Looks like.. Here are some keys to "protecting your development investments" by keeping customers happy: * Provide a good product at a fair price. If you have a $50 product that you are trying to sell for $500, then don't be surprised that copying goes on. Exhibit A: Lotus 123. If you think you have a product worth thousands, then prove it to your customers. If you REALLY think that copying is a threat, have the customer sign a contract before delivering the product. * Provide plenty of easy to use technical support. Sure, users are dorks but they are also the ones who pay your salary and who can either give you tremendous free advertising or more bad press than you can ever overcome. * Provide free bug fixes and provide free upgrades to those who report bugs. After all, the bug is your f*ckup, not the customer's. * Provide real value for the money in upgrades. Don't call bugfix releases upgrades in order to charge for them. Telebit is one of the worst companies in this regard. $150 for bugfixs. Jeez! Of course, they increment the major version number to make it look like an upgrade. * If you sell a shrink-wrapped product, put in a copyright statement that won't make customers laugh as they throw it in the garbage. You can do much worse than to copy Boreland's copyright statement. Oh, and do not make it worse by calling it a "license agreement". * Provide a way for your potential customers to "try before you buy". Incidental copying is a very legitimate way to do this, as is shareware. Orcad takes a different and inovative approach. Call an Orcad sales office and ask for a demo product. What you will get is a fully functional version of the product but with a dongle. Use it as long as you wish. When you buy, you get an unprotected version. Customer Service will make or break your product. You'd damn well better plan for it as an integral feature of your product, fully as important as the software not crashing. Here's an example of how to and how not to do customer support. I have used 2 brands of intelligent async cards in Unix systems for my customers. One brand is Comtrol and the other is Stargate. I no longer use Stargate because of customer support. When I opened the first Comtrol box, the first thing I saw was a plastic gold card just like a credit card. On this card was printed the 800 toll free support number AND the names and direct dial numbers for the General Manager, the Engineering Manager, the Hardware Tech Support manager, the Software Tech Support manager, the Production manager, the Marketing manager and the Sales manager. Above this list of numbers is this statement: "Our committment to you doesn't stop with our products. We give you the support and the extra service you want. IT's because your satisfaction is our #1 priority. COMTROL is only a phone call away. You have full access to all COMTROL personnel. For your convenience, primary department contacts are listed below:" I've had one occasion to use the support number. A board arrived one evening DOA. I called just at closing time. COMTROL had someone drive a board down to Delta DASH and I got it in a few hours. They told me to return the DOA one when convenient and not to worry about shipping back the (very good) documentation. My Stargate experience was a bit different. I inherited my first card in some surplus stock I bought. The card uses address decode PALs that are specific for each OS. My card was equipped for Xenix and I needed a PAL for ISC Unix. I called up Stargate and reached a rather sullen tech support technician. I was told that a new PAL cost $150!!! I passed on the PAL and obtained one from a friend but ordered a driver disk for ISC. When it got here, it was accompanied by some Nth-generation xeroxed dot-matrix printed documentation that was practically unreadable and it would not install. It did not meet the specifications of ISC's installpkg facility. I copied the disk onto the system and installed it manually. Later, I needed to get an upgraded driver for a new version of the OS. I called Stargate for the upgrade, somewhat expecting to pay for it. I was told that I would either have to write (!) to the sales department who would investigate me as a customer and if I passed, would give me the secret password to their BBS where I could download the upgrade. Or I could write and include some money and get a disk. Write a letter in order to access a BBS indeed! Could they have been afraid that I had wirewrapped a board in my basement and wanted to steal the driver to make it work? Who knows. Now both boards work pretty well equally. But I'll never fool with Stargate again while I recommend COMTROL whenever the opportunity arises. The difference is service. I perceived a better value from COMTROL even though it cost more. I firmly believe that if companies would get their heads out of where the sun never shines and focus the energy they put into copy protection into product quality, so-called piracy would cease to be an issue and their profits would soar. As my company grows, I'm going to do the best of my ability to prove this theory correct yet again. John -- John De Armond, WD4OQC | "Purveyors of speed to the Trade" (tm) Rapid Deployment System, Inc. | Home of the Nidgets (tm) Marietta, Ga | {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd |"Politically InCorrect.. And damn proud of it