LAUL@UREGINA1.BITNET (Dennis Gorrie) (08/27/89)
Piracy sells hardware. Hard to believe? Maybe. But its true. Someone asks me "What is a good computer for me to buy", so I give him a list of virtues of computers (including my own Amiga). Then he counters "Yeah, but Jonny has a (brand X) computer and he can get me 400 disks of games and software for free!" I have heard this lots of times, and I know you have too. Because of access to pirated software, many people will by (brand X) computer. In the course of their computer usage, they will even buy some legitimate software. Many people would have not bought (brand X) computer if pirated software were not easily accessable, and therefore they would have never made any legitimate software purchases either. I am sure most of you can think of a (brand X) computer that has experienced enourmous sales, that were partialy a result of software piracy. Its easy to say piracy is moraly and/or legaly wrong. But economicaly, software piracy has got to be one of the most complex questions... ever. No one can really say what the final economic outcome would be if piracy were stopped. But I am sure we can agree, it would be very drastic one, and would have both good AND bad effects on the computer industry. |============================================================================| | (patient) Go ahead doc, tell me the worst. | | (doctor) I'm sorry, but you have MS-DOS... | | (patient) MS-DOS?? ...Maybe I caught it from a toilet seat or something.| | | | DENNIS GORRIE (LAUL AT UREGINA1.BITNET) | |============================================================================|
LAUL@UREGINA1.BITNET (Dennis Gorrie) (08/29/89)
> However, this was seen as the height of rationalization and I promptly >got flamed for it. I hope you fare better. >Russell Recently I lost a job. I was doing some programming for the company I work for. However, another company that is responsible for hardware support was completely amature, inadequate... ect. I criticized them on a local BBS. One of their employees got wind of it, and I was marked as a trouble maker, and I no-longer have a job. In my opinion the main goal of services such as this is to provide information to its users. Now, some of that information may anger a person, and they may think that someone should be persecuted, prosecuted, "made to pay for" something they said. If that is the case they should take care of the matter in a private manner. They should NOT use this information service as a tool for persecution. That's NOT what it is meant for. Services such as this provide one of the few places that people can present their opinions. Those who would turn this into a courtroom and mute opinions different from their own, are doing themselves a real dis-service. It is in their own best interests to be a little more tolerant with regards to an information service such as this. |============================================================================| | (patient) Go ahead doc, tell me the worst. | | (doctor) I'm sorry, but you have MS-DOS... | | (patient) MS-DOS?? ...Maybe I caught it from a toilet seat or something.| | | | DENNIS GORRIE (LAUL AT UREGINA1.BITNET) | |============================================================================|
raw@MCNC.ORG (Russell Williams) (08/29/89)
I'm really sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, that's what most things turn out to be. Russell