Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Copy protection Message-ID: <8802081152.aa00440@SPARK.BRL.ARPA> Date: 8 Feb 88 16:50:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 34 Dan Baldwin writes: > ...It really tics me off that >these software companies want $10-$20 for backups. It seems that they >are really making a profit twice this way. Why not charge $3.00 more >and give you at least a protected backup ? Floppys have been known to >fail, especially if you have kids. I've been lucky (so far). My daughters (ages 11 and 12) have been using an Apple for nearly five years and haven't clobbered any disks (knock on wood). Most of the software they use I can (and have) back up. What really bothers me about protected software that can't be backed up (even if a second disk is included) is that the half life of the originator is far less that the use life of the program. I have a LOT of software that is no longer advertised. Some of the firms have simply gone bankrupt (a lot of good the copy protection did them -- the reason I can't back up some programs is they never sold well enough to make a parm list -- Jennifer of the Prairie for instance); others have been bought out (by whom isn't always known). In some cases (Sir Tech's Police Artist for example -- which I can backup) the company exists but no longer supports the product (I learned that at a club meeting where Sir Tech was extolling the virtue of their new software). The only reasonable solution seems to be to resist buying anything copy protected, or at least check to see if the stuff can be backed up before ordering. --------------------- Disclaimer: My employer often is appalled by my opinions, and my facts may be only vaguely right . ARPA: sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu Murphy A. Sewall BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM School of Business Admin. UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL University of Connecticut