Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: More on the ever popular subjet of Piracy... Message-ID: <8905290012.aa14116@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 29 May 89 05:01:18 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 92 >Murph mentions that we should trust magazine reviews. I said they were a source of information (your friends' opinions aren't all winners either :-) I haven't tried Publish-IT on my //c 'cause I gather from reading the (generally favorable) review in the Big Red's SCARLETT that the thing is slower than (the proverbial) molassas on a 1 MHz Apple (sometimes you have to know how to interpret reviewers). > ...(irregardless I don't spell very well, and I often haven't the time to proofread carefully, but I don't often use words that are famous for not existing :-) > Unfortunately, you can't trust magazine >reviews all the time. It wouldn't hurt if you (and most of the rest of us) wrote the editors a note saying we don't plan to renew subscriptions to magazines that regard their reviews as promotion of advertisers. Then again, a review you KNOW is likely to be overly favorable (so you know to discount most of its plaudits) is better than no clue at all. >Murph also mentions word of mouth (namely this newsgroup). This is but one example. LOTS of Apple hobbiests have access to local bbs's - which often forward opinions obtained here, on AppleLink PE (I'm out in the boondocks without convenient access to AppleLink PE - which I wouldn't care to buy anyway since I spend quite enough time on this list - but I get copies of opinions expressed on APE both here and on my Club's bbs), Genie, Compu$erve, etc. > ...Sure word of >mouth will help in user groups and the likes, but it protects very few of >those who read a review and purchase the program through mail order. It You dash out and order right after you read a review? That's gullible, and the gullible ALWAYS spend more than the cautious (something about "A fool and his money..."). Once burned by relying on a magazine review ought to be sufficient for anyone to learn not to rely on a single source. >protects to an even lesser degree those living abroad, as the magazines are >either late or unavailable. Haste makes waste (wait until the magazines arrive -- unlike eggs and ice cream, software on disks won't spoil on the shelf). If software is so hard to come buy, where do the originals that are pirated come from? If those abroad have the resources to learn about and acquire pirated software, they have the wherewithal to buy the real McCoys. >What it really boils down to (in my book), is a matter of civil >responsibility. We should support software companies that produce high >quality products at reasonable prices (emphasis on reasonable prices - I do >not believe in paying 3-400 bucks for a word processor). We should most You don't have to pay $300 for a word processor. There's FrEDwriter for the Apple 2, PC-Write (shareware $75) for MS-DOS, and I'd guess something of that sort for the Mac, Amiga, and so forth. ONLY the seller gets to decide what's "reasonable" (if you don't agree don't pay, but there's no need to steal). >definitely do our best to warn the public and our fellow men (and women) about >software that doesn't deserve that designation. That you can do, should do. Don't be surprised if droves of "fools" DO think Word Perfect's worth the price (Word Perfect sells 5.0 to anyone with a college or university student or faculty ID for only $135 which I find exceedingly reasonable of them) *not intended to be a plug, just a particularly good 'for instance'* >One last question concerning the issue of 'software collecting'. It is true >that the majority of pirates collects without use, thus, since he never would >have bought the programs to start with, nor does he use them, WHO GETS HURT. You and I do mostly 'cause the pirate doesn't just "exhibit" the software and tell whichever friends say "gee that's neat" that they should bo buy a copy. The pirate GIVES them a copy and THEY (who otherwise would have bought it) use it! (making software generally less available and more expensive for the rest of us. > ...Through this practice I have >generated quite a few sales for the publishers of the good programs - You have sales receipts I suppose? Murph Sewall Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90] Prof. of Marketing Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET] U of Connecticut {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP] (203) 486-5246 [FAX] (203) 486-2489 [PHONE] 41 49N 72 15W [ICBM] -+- I don't speak for my employer, though I frequently wish that I could (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)