ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (01/04/88)
[ The answer is "White Christmas". ]
People have made the assertion that the only way to be contaminated
by the Amiga Virus is to be a software pirate. As has already been pointed
out, this is not true. However, Tom Rokicki further made the assertion that
software piracy is a relatively minor problem compared to IBM's, Mac's,
C-64's, etc.
Unfortunately, this is no longer true.
I have an account on a BBS (the name of which I'll withhold) which I
have, for some strange reason, relatively high access (I think the sysop
likes me). In the file transfer area are numerous commercial Amiga
programs. Dark Castle, Arkanoid, Test Drive, Gee Bee Air Rally.... They're
all there. (I didn't see FACC-II, though.)
Now, being a resoponsible Amigan, I pointed out to the Sysop that
having all this stuff is probably not a good idea. Some of the people who
wrote this stuff are now my personal friends, and I'd like to see them
justly rewarded for their programming efforts. Not to mention the fact that
it's brazenly illegal.
He acknowledged my views, but continues to keep the download
section. Which is fine with me; I've made my views known to him, and if he
elects to listen or not to listen, that's his business. I just won't
download the stuff.
However, I have had extended conversations with him, and asked him
about some of his user's demographics. He says that majority of people who
upload this stuff (and indeed, most of his users in general) own the Amiga
500.
I find this very interesting. Some months ago, on this very
newsgroup, it was predicted that the availability of a low-cost Amiga might
cause software piracy activity to increase. It appears that that prediction
is coming true, if it hasn't already.
I can think of no way to address this problem, except to generate
public awareness that software piracy is an anti-social activity (said the
hypocrite).
The point is that, soon, I believe we will have just as much
software piracy problems as the C-64 community did. Sigh. And I wanted to
make my living writing Amiga games....
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\
\_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctorbryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) (01/05/88)
In article <4898@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > > I find this very interesting. Some months ago, on this very >newsgroup, it was predicted that the availability of a low-cost Amiga might >cause software piracy activity to increase. It appears that that prediction >is coming true, if it hasn't already. Ignoring morals for the moment, let's take a look at the situation: 1> We have people purchasing a low-cost computer. Why? Probably because they have less money. 2> They have less money to start with, so probably have less money to spend on software. 3> Nevertheless, these are often young, enthusiastic people. People who, it could be said, need/want more software than "average". Since it is 100% impossible to protect software from unauthorized copying **, there seems to be a stress point. Obviously the "underdeveloped" moral standards of some individuals will loose out to the free software. It could be a more realistic goal is to get these people to purchase SOME software instead of taking it all for free. We already know that the people with 500+ disks of illegal software don't use it all very often... if at all. Enourage them to pay for what they use. At least with "more machines" there will be more people available to sell software to. Even if some of the new owners don't buy ANYTHING. ** Protecting software is IMPOSSIBLE. I include in this broad statment hardware protection measures such a serial-id roms and "dongles". Most disturbing is that most software is available in the "Pirate Domain" well before the offical release. Not all beta testers are good risks. |\ /| . Ack! (NAK, SOH, EOT) {o O} . bryce@hoser.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!hoser!bryce (or try "cogsci") (") U "Your theory is crazy... but not crazy enought to be true." -Niels Bohr
farmer@ico.UUCP (David Farmer) (01/06/88)
In article <4898@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: An intersesting discussion about increase of software piracy. > The point is that, soon, I believe we will have just as much >software piracy problems as the C-64 community did. Sigh. And I wanted to >make my living writing Amiga games.... > >_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ >Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\ > \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac >O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") >"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor I hope you are not too discouraged, I would like to see you continue to write software for the Amiga. I belive that the majority of people who pirate software, would not have used, and paid money for the software if they could not have pirated it. So the amount of money made by the developer is not changed. I think it is even improved somewhat. I do have some pirated software. I never use it myself, but do occasionaly demo it to people who are interested, and encourage them to buy it if they like it. If they were forced to buy it before seeing it, they never would. Happy programming David Farmer What ever disclaimers are apropriate go here.
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (01/06/88)
In article <2400@ico.UUCP> farmer@ico.UUCP (David Farmer) writes: >In article <4898@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > >An intersesting discussion about increase of software piracy. > >> The point is that, soon, I believe we will have just as much >>software piracy problems as the C-64 community did. Sigh. And I wanted to >>make my living writing Amiga games.... >I belive that the majority of people who pirate software, would not have >used, and paid money for the software if they could not have pirated it. Sure, if you could download a Ferrari, or a Porche for FREE, do you think you'll ever think about buying it? >So the amount of money made by the developer is not changed. I think it >is even improved somewhat. I do have some pirated software. I never use ^^^^^^^^ >it myself, but do occasionaly demo it to people who are interested, and >encourage them to buy it if they like it. Who do you think you are kidding? You (a pirate) encourage other to BUY software you got for free? "Look I've got this really neat program I just downloaded from XXX BSS" "Neat, can I have it?" "NO, you have to BUY it. You know, I do this to HELP software publishers" "Came on, here's a disk" "OK" > If they were forced to buy it before seeing it, they never would. This is also false. Most dealers will allow you to see a DEMO copy of the software or even try the real thing, BEFORE buying. Should I thank you for the nice job you've done pirating software and thus helping out software companies? :-) -- Marco
jim@coplex.UUCP (Jim Sewell) (01/08/88)
In article <4898@well.UUCP>, ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > > I can think of no way to address this problem, except to generate > public awareness that software piracy is an anti-social activity (said the > hypocrite). > I have personal experience to back this up! In 1982 I was a freshman in College with aspirations of making the world a better place by using computers. [ Silly me! 8-) ] I was amazed to find a friend had the same computer I did (a Tandy Color Computer) and shared many of the same opinions. We decided to form a computer club to help some of our less-inspired and computer illiterate friends solve the problems they were having adjusting to the computer age. We elected the fast-talker at our first meeting, consisting of 8 people, to be our new president, leader, and guiding light. [Our first mistake] The first thing out of his lips was "I am a pirate at heart." [the words that led to the doom of our club!] We figured we could still make a go of the club and accomplish our goals. Unfortunately the club decided it was easier to pirate neato games than to learn to program them. Guess what? Our club is now 100% pirates and I have refused to associate with them simply because nothing could get done. There could be no classes (we tried) or question and answer sessions (we tried that too) because the members were too busy copying to listen. I hate paying for good programs as much as the next guy, and may have even copied a couple before (but I'll deny it!), but as Leo said, it is very anti-social to pirate! The Amiga [8-)] club I just joined has wonderful meetings that are both informative and entertaining [new software demos, PD software demos/copying] and this is only possible, in my opinion, because they do not allow any piracy! As was stated earlier about the demographics of the Amiga society, the 1000 owners were of higher class than 500, for the most part, simply because Momma and Daddy won't pay out $$'s for a toy. I'm done now! 8-) Please forgive the length of this message. ============================================================================== Jim Sewell "Make knowledge free!"
sow@cad.luth.se (Sven-Ove Westberg) (01/09/88)
In article <4898@well> ewhac@well writes: | | I can think of no way to address this problem, except to generate |public awareness that software piracy is an anti-social activity (said the |hypocrite). | | The point is that, soon, I believe we will have just as much |software piracy problems as the C-64 community did. Sigh. And I wanted to |make my living writing Amiga games.... | |_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ |Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\ | \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac |O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") |"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor Ohhhh. So you mean that idea piracy is ok!!! If you take it from some bigger. Sven-Ove Westberg, CAD, University of Lulea, S-951 87 Lulea, Sweden. UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!enea!cad.luth.se!sow Internet: sow@cad.luth.se