Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games Subject: Re: SimEarth copy protection Message-ID: <43493@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 31 Jan 91 15:55:51 GMT References: <18659@natinst.natinst.com> <1991Jan28.043033.11475@en.ecn.purdue.edu> <4f802472.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin Lines: 39 In article evett@drinkme.umd.edu (Matt Evett) writes: >defeat it this way. In either case I wish to rant and rave a bit. ditto > >First, I do not find SimEarth's copy protection scheme all that bothersome. Thanks you, but I'm not nearly so tolerant. I'm not interested in somebody deciding how much of my time to waste. (I already waste enough of it myself.) >I strongly sympathize with software manufacturer's >needs to protect their copyrights. This need is amply (and frequently) >demonstrated in this very newsgroup (indeed, by the letter quoted >above). For entertainment software, my sympathies are even more with the >manufacturers. Entertainment software typically is not a big money maker. >Moreover, the software is relatively inexpensive; I see no reason why >people can't scratch up the $30 or $40 bucks to buy a good game. It is exactly for the reason that I've paid $40-50 for my games that I am profoundly uninterested in paying any more for them in time wasted on idiotic CP schemes. The removal of such schemes by the legitamate purchasers of software has nothing to do with the manufacturer's copyrights. I've already PAID them for the right to use the software. Why should _I_ have to be inconvenienced because someone else pirates their software? >Many of the people reading Usenet are programmers. They make their living >by selling--not giving away--software. This readership, more than any >other, should be supportive of reasonable copy protection schemes. It's >nice to condemn software piracy, but it's even nicer to do something about >it. The ONLY reasonable CP I've come across is manual protected software where the use of the manual was an intrinsic part of the game and NOT simply a password mechanism. For ALL other methods I actively seek out patches to defeat them and encourage others to do the same. The way to reduce piracy is to buy your software and show others why having a complete package is much more productive.