tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney) (02/15/86)
++ line eater ?? ++ I have attached a statement from Tim Mott of Electronic Arts regarding their position on Software Theft Protection (Copy Protection). This is at Tim's request and is unedited. Tim is posting this message himself on CompuServe and the Well, but hasn't yet become familiar with 'rn'. If I receive any replies, I will forward them to Tim. -- Glenn Tenney UUCP: {hplabs,glacier,lll-crg,ihnp4!ptsfa}!well!tenney ARPA: well!tenney@LLL-CRG.ARPA Delphi: TENNEY As Alphonso Bodoya would say... (tnx boulton) Disclaimers? DISCLAIMERS!? I don' gotta show you no stinking DISCLAIMERS! -------------------------- cut here --------------------------- Hello. My name is Tim Mott and I'm responsible for product development at Electronic Arts. I want to respond to the recent dicusssions here about our company, products, software theft protection schemes, profitability, etc. From now on I hope to be able to participate in these discussions on a more regular basis. It's difficult for me to spend time on the networks more than once every one or two weeks, so if you're not getting answers fast enough, just give me a call at the office. Regarding software theft protection, let me start by saying that we have listened to your problems and that we intend to change our approach. For new and recent productivity/creativity products (including Amiga Deluxe Paint), we'll make an unprotected backup copy available to our customers who send in a registration card that will also carry a "no-theft" pledge. We're still working out the details of this, but I wanted you to know that we're committed to doing it. Unfortunately, on game products we have no choice but to continue to use theft protection. We have overwhelming evidence that software theft is so prevalent that our business, our software artists and then ultimately our customers will suffer if we don't. However, we have never used, and never will use, any scheme that deliberately damages our customer's disk drives or disks. Regarding our Amiga products, we have had some problems with some copies of Deluxe Paint not passing the theft protection signature check. This situation can arise when the original disk is written on, which the user is cautioned against doing in the documentation. However, this problem was understood very soon after first shipment and has been fixed. If you have a problem like this with a disk, contact our customer service for a replacement. There have also been questions about why some of our Amiga game products don't load under DOS and Intuition. The answer here is very simple and has nothing to do with theft protection. It is that those products, like most game products on all machines, need as much access to, and control of, hardware resources as they can get. Without this we simply can't get the kind of performance we need in these kind of products. As for company goals and profitability, let me say that we are committed to providing high quality and innovative product. We can't do this unless we are viable as a business, which is currently the case. However, as you'll realize when you consider the number of companies that have gone out of business, this is a very difficult industry to succeed in. We're doing what we're doing because we believe in the future of home computing, and not because it's a sure fire way to make a lot of money, which it isn't. Right now according to all the research and tests we've done and know about, lowering prices will not increase sales enough to offset the lower prices and enable us to stay in business. However, as the market for home computers, and then for home computer software, increases we'll definitely be lowering our prices. I hope this has shed some light on what we're about. Be talking to you more in the future. Thanks, Tim. -30-