Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:26373 comp.misc:4354
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nuchat!sugar!karl
From: karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Summary: enforcement of laws would reduce theft; copy protection; ROM cartridges
Message-ID: <3080@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 10 Dec 88 17:31:44 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> <6268@fluke.COM>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 33

In article <6268@fluke.COM>, kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) writes:
> I wonder why companies don't offer cash rewards for "information leading to
> the arrest and conviction" of software pirates.  Just imagine if pirates had
> to keep their hoards secret because of a substantial cash incentive for
> their friends to rat on them.  

You're right.  Although person-to-person piracy is nearly impossible to
detect, what allows pirate boards to operate so blatantly is they are not
being prosecuted for copyright violations.  If the government would crack
down on them, they would have to keep their boards secret, and this would
reduce their ability to proliferate pirated software.  

It also would make copy protection work better, because cracking copy 
protection with anything other than Marauder or its equivalent is beyond 
the abilities of most Amiga owners.  Whether or not that's an advantage 
depends on your point of view regarding copy protection.  For games for
which one doesn't even don't need a manual to learn to operate, I think
*some* kind of CP is a necessary evil.  For commercial packages that you
do work with (and usually need support, documentation and udpates for), 
no way.

Regarding the copying of ROM cartridges, there were some hardware techs at
a certain large company who had EPROM copies of a very large number of
Atari 2600 games and they made a 2600 cartridge PC board that had a ZIF
(Zero Insertion Force, the green sockets that have a lever on them to
clamp the socket down on the pens) socket on it and they just distributed
the chips to their circle of pals.  Nintendo and Sega cartridges being
as expensive as they are, I imagine this sort of thing is going on in
some places.
-- 
-- "We've been following your progress with considerable interest, not to say
-- contempt."  -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV
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