Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!kth!draken!umecs!ikaros!christer From: christer@ikaros.cs.umu.se (Christer Ericson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Piracy Keywords: situation makes difference? Message-ID: <858@umecs.cs.umu.se> Date: 20 May 89 12:34:55 GMT References: <2332@wpi.wpi.edu> <31108@apple.Apple.COM> Sender: news@umecs.cs.umu.se Reply-To: christer@ikaros.UUCP (Christer Ericson) Organization: Dep. of Inform.Proc.,University of Umea,Sweden Lines: 82 In article <31108@apple.Apple.COM> farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier) writes: >In article <2332@wpi.wpi.edu> dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) writes: >>I think the original posting on piracy indicated a general inability of the >>poster to get original software, because of the small Apple market in Canada. >> >>If you lived outside the United States, piracy might seem less of a crime and >>more of a necessity. Do mail order houses in the States accept orders from >>Mexico, Korea, or Sweden? If they do, do you need to have funds drawable >> [rest of article deleted for brevity] > > Let's face it: > Piracy = Theft > >Cary Farrier I hate to disappoint you Cary, but piracy isn't the same thing as theft, not really anyway. Here in Sweden the government hasn't been able to keep the laws up to date, due to the speedy progress of computing in general. [Footnote: We have one of the most bureaucratic bureacracies (sp? sp?) in the world] Therefore copying of programs is still legal here (perhaps it's better to say it's not illegal to copy programs). So perhaps piracy = theft in the US, but your laws don't apply here. Selling pirated stuff is entirely another matter though (sorta). For a year (or two) ago a guy was convicted for selling copies of commercial software, however he only got convicted because he had sold games not because he had sold spreadsheets, wordprocessors etc. Yes, that's pretty strange, but the court came to the conclusion that games are of an original concept and therefore can be copyrighted while there isn't anything innovative with wordprocessors so the same won't apply to them. I will leave this at this point as I don't know that much of this incident. Now to an entirely different(?) subject. Why would I want to pirate programs? That's easy, if I want an Apple II program I would have to order it from the US. [Neither programs nor Apple II's, or GS'es for that matter, are sold here in Sweden. If I were to call Apple Computer Sweden and ask if they could sell me an Apple II they would say 'A WHAT?? We don't have that. Our only computer is the Macintosh, silly.' Hear that Mr Farrier, go beat Mr Sculley on the head with an Amiga!]. That means that I cannot look at a program before buying it. It also means that I have to pay about 3 times as much as you would have to play for the same program (toll, freight, telephone order etc.). As Dave Seah also pointed out, how do I know that I get the latest version? I has happened that friends have recieved old versions from software retailers like Program Plus. I think that piracy, at least here in Sweden, is good since the few Apple II owners that are left (some 300-400, 'all' pirates) get to know what's available and if they like a program they can order it from the US, pay blood for it and recieve the manual you need to run the program properly anyway. One thing that was common (still is?) was that a number of people got together and ordered some 4-5 programs they really wanted, say Appleworks utilities, cracked these, copied the manuals and they each got a copy of the program for about the same price they would have to pay if they lived in the US. The companies got to sell their programs, so they're happy. These people got their copies of the programs for a reasonable amount of money, so they're happy also. Did anyone loose on this? No, because if they hadn't got together and ordered those programs, no one could have afforded to buy them. (Yea yea, they COULD have afforded it but to what price??!) No Cary, Dave Seah's letter was right on. I have only kept my Apple II since I got it far back when Apple Computer still was a company that cared about it's customers and I feel it is an outstanding machine (I mean, WOZ is a true genius, look at the coding of Sweet-16 for instance) and I have invested a lot in software and peripherials and I don't want to throw that away just because Apple wants me to. Also who would want a lobotomized machine like the GS when one could get an Amiga instead... Suckers! Now if the GS had some sprites, alternate screens, multitasking perhaps, and speed THEN... May the ghost of Apple II forever haunt the Macintosh people at Apple. /Christer Now if someone could tell us about the situation in Mexico and Korea... | Christer Ericson Internet: christer@cs.umu.se | | Department of Computer Science, University of Umea, S-90187 UMEA, Sweden | | >>>>> "I bully sheep. I claim God doesn't exist..." <<<<< |