Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!oucsace!bchurch
From: bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Lack of games for the GS
Summary: Thieves don't buy software
Message-ID: <1171@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>
Date: 28 Feb 90 20:08:53 GMT
References: <1113@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU> <15800090@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Ohio University CS Dept., Athens
Lines: 44

In article <15800090@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, cs122dc@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU writes:
  [ stuff about copy protection being bad business, especially for the GS] 
> >Look at the success of Appleworks and the Timeout/Beagle Bros software. Now
> >imagine trying to use these if they were copy-protected. 
> 
> I have to agree with you, to some extent not allowing people to place 
> programs on hard drives is a pain, but you have to look at it from a
> marketing standpoint.  If you don't protect the program, SOMEONE is going
> to copy it (and not just for the sake of having a back-up either).  

If you protect the program people who steal software will use a utility
to copy it. If they can't copy it they won't use it. I really do not believe
that enough people have bought software because they were unable to copy it
to justify copy protection. If they can't copy it they skip it. From a 
marketing view point then, marginal gain ( the people who couldn't copy the
program so they bought it) is far exceeded by marginal loss ( those who buy
software but won't buy a copy-protected game). 
>For
> every copy of AppleWorks out there that was sold legitimately, how many
> illegal copies do you think there are? (and at around $200 a crack, that's
> a lot of profit loss).
Appleworks is probably the most stolen program in existence. Despite this, the
value of this program is so great that it was the highest selling package of
*any* software for a few years. Much of this value would have been lost if
it had been copy-protected.

  Aside from that, I don't see where copy protection
> truly affects a program's overall performance, except during disk activity.

I'm afraid I can't think of any non-incendiary replies to that.
 
> 	Randy Vose


********************************************************************
*                                                                  *
*   bob church  bchurch@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu                       *
*                                                                  *
*  If economics isn't an "exact" science why do computers crash    *
*  so much more often than the stock market?                       *
*                                          bc                      *
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