hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com (Harv Laser) (03/18/88)
(crossposted from the Atari ST Club on Plink)
-----
Club : ATARI ST Sec: 1
Date : 3/17/88 9:01 Num: 2,753
Theme: ATARI ST PIRACY?
To : ALL By : ATARI*TROS
Title: WILL WP -- GO AWAY???
-----
Thanks to ST*BILL for this alarming news about Word Perfect on the
ST.
--------------------------
Date 3/16/88 23:58
From ST*BILL
--------------------------
TO: ATARI*TROS
The following was captured tonight from the Applied Computer
Associates Bulletin Board, Gaithersburg, Maryland (Atari/Blue Chip
dealer). The message from CI$ is a very harsh warning about the piracy of
the first respected, supported professional product for our machine, WORD
PERFECT.
(DOWNLOADED FROM COMPUSERVE - 3/16/88)
Message number (<CR> to end): 94541
#: 94541 S3/ST Applications
15-Mar-88 10:50:50
Sb: #WORD PERFECT QUITS
Fm: SYSOP*Ron Luks 76703,254
To: All
Last night I received a VERY disturbing phone call from the director
of corporate communications of Word Perfect Corp. It seems that the powers
that be at WP are very upset at finding their software freely available on
a number of pirate BBS and have decided the ATARI ST market is not one
that they want to participate in anymore.
That's right-- WORD PERFECT intends to remove themselves from the
ATARI ST market and plans to withdraw their software from the store
shelves!!!!
Mr. Acerson explained that the decision to pull out of the ATARI
market wasn't something he preferred to do, but its been a long standing
policy at WP not to copy protect their software and to utilize systems
like Compuserve and BBS to *support* their users. They will not operate in
an atmosphere where the same support systems are used to steal their
product. They feel its up to the user community to police themselves to
prevent such problems and explained to me that they have not found similar
problems in the PC or AMIGA communities.
The unfortunate fact is that both WP and the decent members of the
ATARI ST community will both be hurt by this move because of the actions
of a few pieces of scum. Jeff acknowledged that the first release of WP
for the ST contained some bugs but that they have been corrected because
WP has always had the commitment to stand behind their product and will
devote whatever resources are necessary to do this. If they pull out of
the ST market, they will lose the development costs associated with the ST
version but the REAL losers will be the ST community. If a company with
the stature of WP decides to drop out of the ATARI market, who will be
next??
In our conversation I tried to convince Mr. Acerson that these pirate
BBSs were actually a minority and that it just wasnt fair to the rest of
the ATARI community to suffer for their actions. (in fact, WP discovered
complete copies of their product on 3 BBSs in the few months its been
available) He stated that WP would be seeking legal action against these
BBS operators, but that WP was in the business of selling and supporting
software, not spending significant corporate resources tracking down
thieves and that although 3 BBSs werent going to bankrupt WP, this number
found in such a short time bodes badly for the ST market.
I then asked him if WP would reconsider their action if it could be
shown to them that in fact these 3 thieves were a small minority and the
majority of the ST community represented, decent, law abiding responsible
consumers who deserved to be served. He said that if he could show his
superiors that this was the case, and that the ATARI community could
responsibly police itself, there was a good chance WP would remain in the
ATARI ST market.
Therefore, I'm asking for a show of support from the SIG*ATARI
membership on this subject and requesting that this problem be circulated
to all other systems and BBSs wherever possible.
C'mon folks-- piracy just about about killed the ATARI 8-bit market,
and now seriously threatens the ST market. Many of us have too much
invested in our systems to watch it go down the drain because of a few
pieces of scum. If we can show a significant amount of support, perhaps we
can retain the vendors we now have and hope to have in the future.
Ron Luks
**************************************************************************
* NOTE FROM SYSOP: If you captured this message, please upload it to any *
* --------------- BBS you frequent. thanks. -Steve *
**************************************************************************
---Bill
-----
nb: I have not personally verified this with WP Corp, nor have I altered
any of the text, nor am I out to start any flame wars with comp.sys.atari.st
so this is not being posted there. I have friends who work at WP Corp...
they're a helluva company to be supporting the Amiga. I'd really hate
to see this happen to _US_ !
Harv Laser, Sysop, The People/Link AmigaZone. Plink: CBM*HARV
UUCP: {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, rutgers!marque}!gryphon!pnet02!hrlaser
INET: hrlaser@pnet02.cts.compage@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (03/19/88)
I called WP Corp just now, and talked to Todd in the Atari group. He said they were NOT pulling out of the Atari ST market, and in fact, a new version of WP is going out for the ST next week. He aknowledged that WP Corp is concerned about the pirating in the ST market, but will NOT be pulling out of that market. Even so, the gist of the letter was correct. WP Corp isn't happy with the ST pirating going on, and a lot of other sofware companies are staying away from the ST because of the rampant piracy going on. Interesting to see how the users are killing the machine. Let's hope the new Amiga 500 crowd can stay away from pirating. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!page "Nicaragua" is Spanish for "Vietnam."
boblind@percival.UUCP (Bob Lindstrom) (03/20/88)
In article <2924@gryphon.CTS.COM> hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com (Harv Laser) writes: >(crossposted from the Atari ST Club on Plink) > >----- >Club : ATARI ST Sec: 1 >Date : 3/17/88 9:01 Num: 2,753 >Theme: ATARI ST PIRACY? >To : ALL By : ATARI*TROS >Title: WILL WP -- GO AWAY??? >----- > > Thanks to ST*BILL for this alarming news about Word Perfect on the >ST. > > (A transporting from American PeopleLink follows in which Todd Acerson >of Word Perfect Corp. tells PLink Atari ST Sysop Ron Luks that WP is >considering getting out of the Atari ST market because of rampant BBS >piracy of their word processor. >----- >(THEN, Harv Laser - PLink Amiga Sysop - returns and says: >nb: I have not personally verified this with WP Corp, nor have I altered >any of the text, nor am I out to start any flame wars with comp.sys.atari.st >so this is not being posted there. I have friends who work at WP Corp... >they're a helluva company to be supporting the Amiga. I'd really hate >to see this happen to _US_ ! > I just want to pop in and add my voice of concern on this one. I generally stay away from piracy discussions because they tend to bring out the irrational in all of us. But, I have had SEVERAL software developers - the majors! - tell me that they are scaling down or discontinuing Atari ST development because they simply can't make any money at it. Piracy is so totally out of control on that machine. I know the temptation to steal software is strong. I know it's tempting. But it's also illegal and if the iilegality of it can't concern our post-'60s generation then we SHOULD be concerned that the degree of piracy on the Amiga can make or break this machine the same way it's BREAKING the Atari ST. Despite the hardware flame wars that persist, the Atari ST is a very good machine. I have one. I like it. (Not as well as the Amiga, of course). But Atari users are killing its future. So, to second Harv's plea: Invest in the future of the Amiga. If you see a piece of software that is good, that deserves your money, please buy it and put a stake in the future of Amiga software development. No one is saying to buy any and all software and get burned. But DO recognize the superior efforts with your cash. (And don't use pirated software ... if it's worth using, it's worth buying. If it's not worth using, format the disk.) -- | Troutdale Shrine of Computing ** Bob Lindstrom, perpetrator | | ** UUCP:percival!boblind | | "Speeding senility through ** PLink: Bob L. Q-Link:Lindstrom| | DIRECT MEMORY EXCESS" ** CIS: 72030,224 |
bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett) (03/20/88)
page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: >Interesting to see how the users are killing the machine. Let's hope >the new Amiga 500 crowd can stay away from pirating. > >..Bob Don't get me wrong Bob - just call it pessimistic I guess. I don't see why the growing Amiga crowd would behave any different then the Atari. I hope I'm wrong. And maybe WPCorp will have to or want to accept a percentage of sale loss then no sales at all? Bill UUCP: {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax rutgers!marque}!gryphon!pnet02!bilbo INET: bilbo@pnet02.cts.com
kudla@pawl20.pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) (03/22/88)
Piracy on the Amiga will never be as big as it was on the 8-bit machines for
ONE BIG reason: The public domain software is SO much better, and there's
SO much more of it than for the 8-bits. Also, there aren't eighty million
fledgling software developers trying to make a fast buck off of this
year's Castle Wolfenstein clone or whatever. For that reason, I own
very little commercial software on the Amiga, pirated or otherwise. When
you can get the same thing for free (or a lot cheaper, through Shareware,
than you'd expect at a software house) it seems kind of pointless to get
bogged down in the old Commodore game of Tradin' Warez<-<-<-<-<-.
------------Robert J. Kudla - Pseudo-Freshman Extraordinaire-------------
Screw the disclaimers- flame at will! Itt@RPITSMTS.BITNET
FU7Z%mts@itsgw.rpi.edu
kudla@pawl.rpi.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------shimoda@rmi.UUCP (Markus Schmidt) (03/24/88)
In article <566@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> kudla@pawl20.pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) writes: : Piracy on the Amiga will never be as big as it was on the 8-bit machines for : ONE BIG reason: The public domain software is SO much better, and there's Hi! I wont agree with that. At least in Germany the Piracy for AMIGA is as big as for the C64 in it's best times. And the piracy is the reason, why both machines have Germany as the best market in the world. You can get EVERYTHING. But I don't think that this will be a reason for Softwarehouses going bankrupt. Those kids who are pirating like mad, would never buy an original product, even if they would not be able to get a copy of it. And those who might buy are a minority. So piracy is a big deal for CA, since they are selling their machines better with free software aviable. |._,| Cu - - Markus ==O== (shimoda@rmi.UUCP) `-' Never trust a smiling cat!