mjs@eagle.UUCP (M.J.Shannon) (05/29/85)
{Eat me, bug!}
Why do people ship `binary only' goodies? I can think of several reasons:
to hide the fact that the program may steal information from the
machine it runs on;
to hide the fact that the program may destroy information on that
machine;
to hide the fact that the program itself was stolen;
to protect `proprietary interests'.
Of the above reasons, only one (the last one, in case there's any doubt) is at
all legitimate. The others all indicate illegalities which may be prosecuted.
Now I just received a games distribution for a micro from a coworker in my
company. When I asked if there was a possibility of getting source, I was
told, `No Way'.
Which of the above reasons should I presume is the cause for this reaction, and
dare I run any of these programs on my machine?
Concerned and annoyed,
--
Marty Shannon
UUCP: ihnp4!eagle!mjs
Phone: +1 201 522 6063herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS]) (05/30/85)
In article <1261@eagle.UUCP> mjs@eagle.UUCP (M.J.Shannon) writes: >{Eat me, bug!} > >Why do people ship `binary only' goodies? I can think of several reasons: > > to hide the fact that the program may steal information from the > machine it runs on; > to hide the fact that the program may destroy information on that > machine; > to hide the fact that the program itself was stolen; > to protect `proprietary interests'. > >Of the above reasons, only one (the last one, in case there's any doubt) is at >all legitimate. The others all indicate illegalities which may be prosecuted. > >Now I just received a games distribution for a micro from a coworker in my >company. When I asked if there was a possibility of getting source, I was >told, `No Way'. > >Which of the above reasons should I presume is the cause for this reaction, and >dare I run any of these programs on my machine? > > Concerned and annoyed, >-- > Marty Shannon >UUCP: ihnp4!eagle!mjs >Phone: +1 201 522 6063 there are a few others i can think of: to prevent people from figuring out the game by reading the source. after all, what fun would adventure be if you knew everything to do at every room before your very first game? to add to the "value" of the game by making it hard to get. to make people dependent upon you for updates, etc., with charging optional. to make sure that only one group's ideas end up in the game both for consistency and "future plans". this does not mean that ideas and suggestions are not used, but have to fit into the "master plan" for these. user of all of the above and only the last of marty's Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu
pavlov@hscfvax.UUCP (840033@G.Pavlov) (05/31/85)
Re: paranoia about binaries: - and which of the reasons on that list of yours are we to assume about binary Unix licenses (the only sort us non-academic types can afford) ???
wcs@ho95b.UUCP (Bill Stewart) (06/05/85)
> Why do people distribute software only in binary? > [1)-3)it's ripped off] > 4) to protect "proprietary interests" 5) (much like 4) So they can sell it later? 6) (For micros, this is common) The software may depend on a specific compiler, which not everyone has.
readnews@rayssd.UUCP (USENET Current Events) (06/20/85)
=== REFERENCED ARTICLE =================================== > Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site rayssd.UUCP > Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hscfvax.UUCP > Path: rayssd!raybed2!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!hscfvax!pavlov > From: pavlov@hscfvax.UUCP (840033@G.Pavlov) > Newsgroups: net.sources,net.games > Subject: Re: Have you been horsed today? > Message-ID: <117@hscfvax.UUCP> > Date: Fri, 31-May-85 09:51:06 EDT > Article-I.D.: hscfvax.117 > Posted: Fri May 31 09:51:06 1985 > Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 21:49:51 EDT > References: <1261@eagle.UUCP> > Organization: Health Sciences Computing Facility, Harvard University > Lines: 5 > Xref: rayssd net.sources:1711 net.games:985 > > > Re: paranoia about binaries: > > - and which of the reasons on that list of yours are we to assume about > binary Unix licenses (the only sort us non-academic types can afford) ??? ========================================================== You people who write these games and other NET news programs are a bunch of geeks! Computer geeks,that is!