Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!gatech!mcnc!thorin!unc!bell
From: bell@unc.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <5815@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 88 19:56:42 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <12325@cup.portal.com> <5485@cbmvax.UUCP> <1625@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: bell@unc.UUCP (Andrew Bell)
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 37

In article <1625@nmtsun.nmt.edu> wncs302@nmtsun.nmt.edu (William Norris) writes:
>In article <5485@cbmvax.UUCP> jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) writes:
>>	The best solution to this is to have a good dealer.  My local dealer
>>... They had an excellent
>>return policy, etc, etc.  I didn't have to worry about buying something that
>>wasn't what I wanted, since I could try it out in the store.

>WOW!  You must have a great dealer alright.  Has everything in stock, does he?
>No?  Oh, well then, he must special order software packages at customer's
>whims, let them try them out, and send them back if the customer isn't
>interested!!

>Sounds great in theory, but doesn't really work.

It would,  however,  work for companies that made demos of their products,
i.e. crippled versions of the software.  I expect a dealer would be willing to
pay the price of a disk for a demo.  If not,  the company could absorb the
cost of the demo disks themselves.

Such demos should be truly freely redistributable,  of course,  and I would
make them available to the general public as in "send us $3 and we'll send
you a copy of the demo,  which you can freely give copies away of."

That way,  even folks without a local dealer can look at software before they
buy it.

Any good reason for not doing this?  (Save the amount of hacking to make a
demo?)

>					William B. Norris IV



------
Andrew Bell,  living a double life at bell@cs.unc.edu and acb@cs.duke.edu
"Why can't we ever attempt to solve a problem in this country without having
a 'War' on it?" -Rich Thomson, talk.politics.misc