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From: martin@iros1.UUCP (Daniel Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copy protection: A marketing analysis
Message-ID: <237@Mannix.iros1.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Jul-87 16:05:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: Mannix.237
Posted: Sat Jul 25 16:05:45 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Aug-87 21:23:14 EDT
References: <8707171737.AA01789@THYME.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Sender: news@iros1.UUCP
Reply-To: martin@iros1.UUCP (Daniel Martin)
Distribution: na
Organization: Universite de Montreal
Lines: 50
Keywords: Gizmo, Dongles and YES copy protection
Summary: Not such a bad idea!


In article <8707171737.AA01789@THYME.LCS.MIT.EDU> atheybey@ptt.lcs.mit.edu writes:
>Steven C. Den Beste wrote:
>
>     [Analysis of the software market from companies point of view.
>      Conclusion:  Copy protection is great for software companies, and the
>	           "gizmo" type is the best of all.]
>------
>Great.  So what happens in this mythical happy world where all
>software comes with gizmos?  What if I own 10 programs, each of which
>came with a gizmo, and the gizmos are unmarked? 

   Well, first we all label our disk don't we?  Soo we can have some usefull
GIZMO label..  Moreover someone will certainly lose a bit of it's time to
create a standard and design the PASS thru GIZMO hardware interface (1/2 -:) ).
It will certainly look like the wall plug of your xmas tree, but there's
some cheap way to allow more than one protected software to run at once.

> ... I will find ways to lose gizmos,
>especially if I have more than one of them, and I will get very mad if
>a company tells me to "look harder for it."

   Of course, it's not at the advantage of a company to tell it's customer to
wear a pair of glasses, although it will certainly have a BIG visual effect on
the Customer Service expense! :-)
   There's something that troubles me.. I haven't seen any users yet who
claimed to have lost their program disk.  Maybe with the right accesories
(Gizmo Box, Gizmo Key Holder, Gizmo Cleaner ect.) and with the cooperation
of the end-user, we will be able to keep those losses at a minimum.

   (Please read all the above with a big :-) on it).

   Of course the above method of protecting softwares do have major lacks.  
Numerous messages stated those, but I would point out that for a company it's
a relatively cheap way of to have a good protection without much inconvenience
for the user.

   If the Gizmo Pass Thru is just a dream, we were proposed with a nice
feasable replacement.  The Amiga-Gizmo, a device that could easily be 
attach to your computer, giving him a unique status.  It's not a new idea, 
but having the key movable (not burden in hardware) is.  It solve most if not
all of the problems, including the hot issue of "Multi-Tasking" and allowing
the user to use the software on different machine.

   It would certainly make the life a bit harder for the Pirate, but they'll
certainly come out with a Super-Dongle-AutoConfig-Adaptor, that will emulate
any serial number you want.  It a never ending chase..

   Bye, Daniel Martin,
	uucp: seismo!utai!musocs!iros1!martin.