Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!nic.MR.NET!shamash!nis!sialis!orbit!pnet51!swordfis
From: swordfis@pnet51.cts.com (Tim Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <413@orbit.UUCP>
Date: 17 Dec 88 19:45:08 GMT
Sender: root@orbit.UUCP
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Lines: 33

1. I finally got a copy of DungeonMaster, from FTL, into my hot little hands.
 I read the manual, and was all set to waste an evening happily gaming, when I
found out the disk didn't work. Now, my guess is that the pirates will have
the game cracked within a couple of months. I am strongly anti-piracy, and it
irks me that the little buggers will have working copies of the disk just for
the asking, while I, a paid user, have to return mine. 
Now, I know this isn't earth-shattering. I haven't thrown my money down the
drain, since I can return/exchange the program. But it is* damn inconvenient.
Why should the paid users be made to suffer for the acts of the pirates?
Manual protection seems like a much better idea. Pirates delight in cracking
disks, but I've never heard of the text to a manual being uploaded to a pirate
board. With manual protection, paid users get disks that work*, and (golly!)
can install the games they've paid* for* onto their hard disks. Manual
protection is still* a pain in the -- uh -- neck, but it makes me extremely
nervous to have a $40, or $50, or $60 program at the mercy of the Gods Of
Floppies.

2. This talk of fines and such is all very nice, but first shouldn't you think
about how you're going to catch* the pirates? 
Why does everyone seem to think there's more chance of catching software
pirates than there is of catching music and video pirates? Both the music and
film industries are immense, powerful lobbies, and have had strict legislation
passed against the piracy of their products.
Who on here is ready to say: "I've never* taped a song off of an album/CD for
a friend,"? or "I've never taped a movie off of cable and let a friend watch
it,"? 
I have a lot of programmer friends who tape albums for each other, and when I
(A professional musician,) point out that they're pirating intellectual
property, take it as a joke. Programmers seem to feel that their intellectual
property is more valid than other sorts. 

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