Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!hao!ames!ptsfa!well!ewhac
From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Amiga User Demographics Are Changing...
Message-ID: <4898@well.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 88 22:40:59 GMT
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: Bleep Gzorp!
Lines: 50

[ The answer is "White Christmas". ]

	People have made the assertion that the only way to be contaminated
by the Amiga Virus is to be a software pirate.  As has already been pointed
out, this is not true.  However, Tom Rokicki further made the assertion that
software piracy is a relatively minor problem compared to IBM's, Mac's,
C-64's, etc.

	Unfortunately, this is no longer true.

	I have an account on a BBS (the name of which I'll withhold) which I
have, for some strange reason, relatively high access (I think the sysop
likes me).  In the file transfer area are numerous commercial Amiga
programs.  Dark Castle, Arkanoid, Test Drive, Gee Bee Air Rally.... They're
all there.  (I didn't see FACC-II, though.)

	Now, being a resoponsible Amigan, I pointed out to the Sysop that
having all this stuff is probably not a good idea.  Some of the people who
wrote this stuff are now my personal friends, and I'd like to see them
justly rewarded for their programming efforts.  Not to mention the fact that
it's brazenly illegal.

	He acknowledged my views, but continues to keep the download
section.  Which is fine with me; I've made my views known to him, and if he
elects to listen or not to listen, that's his business.  I just won't
download the stuff.

	However, I have had extended conversations with him, and asked him
about some of his user's demographics.  He says that majority of people who
upload this stuff (and indeed, most of his users in general) own the Amiga
500.

	I find this very interesting.  Some months ago, on this very
newsgroup, it was predicted that the availability of a low-cost Amiga might
cause software piracy activity to increase.  It appears that that prediction
is coming true, if it hasn't already.

	I can think of no way to address this problem, except to generate
public awareness that software piracy is an anti-social activity (said the
hypocrite).

	The point is that, soon, I believe we will have just as much
software piracy problems as the C-64 community did.  Sigh.  And I wanted to
make my living writing Amiga games....

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	ihnp4!ptsfa -\
 \_ -_		Recumbent Bikes:	      dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	      The Only Way To Fly.	      hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor