Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site puff.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!uwvax!puff!lishka From: lishka@puff.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga Subject: Re: Piracy << WARNING: SEVERE FLAMES AHEAD >> Message-ID: <804@puff.UUCP> Date: Thu, 17-Apr-86 17:56:30 EST Article-I.D.: puff.804 Posted: Thu Apr 17 17:56:30 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 19-Apr-86 08:30:24 EST References: <1844@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> <1409@vax135.UUCP> Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 58 Summary: flame! In article <1409@vax135.UUCP>, cjp@vax135.UUCP (Charles Poirier) writes: > What a wonderful rationalization. "If software were cheaper, I > wouldn't have to compromise my morals and I'd buy more, pirate less." > All the people I know who pirate software do so regardless of the price > and/or immorality. Piraters don't care whether they save $10 or $100. > To them, the immorality cost of pirating is zero; and the authors and > marketers of software "deserve" ZERO profit. Some software developer > this flamer is; I doubt that he is currently making a living selling > Amiga software at Commodore 64 prices. > Well, I don't own an Amiga yet...I still work on a Com.-64 (I was one of those people who paid $300 for a Vic-20 and $400 for a 64). I have bought a few games from Electronic Arts. Except for one, they were pretty much cr*p. I am not complaining about the game idea or the amount of fun I have had playing with these things, it is just that they were pretty poorly written. For example, I once purchased the Music Construction set, thinking that it would be a nice functional product. I had some pretty bad problems. For example, no matter how I tried I could never get a dotted note to produce the correct result. And when it didn't not only did the music not play in time but also the graphics started moving out of synch with the actual music. Bad programming if you ask me. I took that program back within a week. Even worse, I bought a copy of Pinball Construction Set for my Com.-64 and was initially thrilled (I still have the program). However, at random time intervals the program quite simply dies (and locks up) and everything I've just created is lost. This might be O.K. if I could hit an icon to backup the disk from the "Construstion" mode. But no, I have to call up the disk mode, save it, then go back. Even worse, if one creates a pinball game and plays it outside of the construction set there is no way to reset the game if a ball gets stuck somewhere. You have to reboot. My point is that these are poorly written, or in the case of Pin. Con. Set "translated", programs and it insane to even pay $40 from a company that has a reputation of delivering a well made product. Every version of MCS and PCS I've used (including pirated versions) have these problems. And PCS was a program that critics called fabulous. But how functional is soemthing that destroys itself while you are using it? And although I guess I am not saying everyone should got out and pirate something (or even anyone), I think that Electronic Arts deserves whatever it gets with pirating because I feel that paying even $40 for a game that doesn't live up to its promises is ridiculous. [Hell, there are companies out there selling games at $20 list price]. Oh, by the way, I also bought Racing Destruction Set by E.A. and think that it is one of the best programs ever written (I have not found any bugs at all) and am also glad that I paid the $40. My point here is that I am not out to get at just E.A... I am out to get ANY company that produces a poorly written program and expects consumers to pay good money for it (another example is Valdocs...my father has it and found he had to do a LOT of sh*t to get it to work with his non-epson printer, only to find that if he typed in a document longer than 6 pages bugs came out all over the place. Because he writes professionally he finally switched to WordStar). Death to poorly written programs! May the well written ones live on forever! Chri Lishka U.W. Madison- comp sci student