mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (06/30/87)
Keywords: richc@madvax.UUCP (Rich Commins) writes: > Some copy protection is worse than others, but for different reasons. > I HATE ALL COPY PROTECTION OF ANY KIND! I echo your sentiments. How are you going to play that whizzy game once you misplace the instruction manual? Inconvenient at the very least. I would think losing the instruction manual can be as likely as a media error, given your level of organization. My housemate purchased "Little Computer People" from Activision, to play on my Amiga. This game is copy protected. It also WRITES TO THE MASTER DISK! This is only begging for some catastrophe to occur. Sure enough, a not-so computer literate friend of mine reset the machine when the game was writing to the disk. Boom. I can't see how Activision can be so irresponsible about copy protection, especially with a product that has such a large audience of computer neophytes (children in particular). If the software wasn't protected, DiskSalv or DiskDoctor might have fixed the problem (they don't -- I tried them on a Marauder-II copy of the disk after the catastrophe occurred). I can't recommend that anyone purchase software from Activision with such an attitude towards copy protection. > If the software that is being sold was of better quality I think their > would be less stealing of software. I've seen better public domain > software, than some of the stuff being sold. which is why I rely on PA software for most of my Amiga computing needs. I'm not new to the world of piracy; I used to own an Atari 800, notorious for the amount of piracy among its owners. Every Atari BBS I called was into some form of piracy or another. Some sysops even had their software collection as an option on the main menu, so you could see what to trade. Most of these people pirated software because it wasn't worth the price it was selling for. Perhaps when software houses realize that $40 is a ludicrous price for a piece of game software, less software theft will occur. I usually get bored of even the best games after a few weeks (my attention span record was with Miner 2049'er). I can buy about three CD's or ten books with the same money, and I'll get more, longer-lasting enjoyment out of them. Considering a musical artist or an author can put at least as much work into an album or a book as a software author, I think the price scale is a bit stilted. --M -- Mike Portuesi / Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Department ARPA: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu UUCP: {backbone-site}!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp BITNET: rainwalker@drycas (a uVax-1 run by CMU Computer Club...tons o' fun)
vanam@pttesac.UUCP (Marnix van Ammers) (07/07/87)
Regarding copy protection and other gripes about commercial Amiga programs, how about: We establish a set of standards for Amiga programs and make a database showing which programs conform to which standards? I got this idea from a previous posting where an Amiga programming contest was announced. There were several pages of specifications which entries had to meet. For example, they had to work in 512K, had to work with additional fast ram being in the system. They had to allow multitasking (not allowed to take over the machine). They had to use standard Amiga mouse commands (not like flight simulator which seems to use MAC mouse commands). Etc. etc. I think you get the idea. I was just going to say that I'm surprised that Amiga World hasn't done this, but then I realized they get a lot of their money from software companies advertising in their magazine. I don't know maybe it would bring them more grief than it's worth to them. But *WE* could do it! We just need a list of specifications. Hey I'm not saying that it's *always* bad not to follow standards. But I'd like to know about any deviations and the why's before I shell out my $$. Also they should make a law that the copy protection scheme be legibly posted on the cover of any software package. Nothing infuriates me so much as to find out that I can't put a program on my hard disk, or if I do I'll still have to insert a "key" disk. Enough ... Marnix
perry@atux01.UUCP (07/07/87)
I just want to add to this discussion that pirates DO take such simple pleasures as FOOD and RENT away from the authors of software. Not all authors are members of million dollar publishing conglomerates. Some (if not most) are people just like you and me putting in huge efforts hoping for some material reward. Pirates subvert the very basis of the industry. In our case, we took what we thought was a new approach. Give a lot to the community. Provide a quality product. Keep the cost low. Don't copy protect. Even ASK people not to pirate. We thought somehow we would be spared from piracy because of the things we've done for the community and the other things mentioned above. How'd this idea work out? (ie: place trust in our fellow person?) Well in one case someone uploaded Facc and its manuals (complete with copy- right notice and plea not to pirate) to a bbs and called it ``newadd- buffers.'' Here everyone. Feast upon this! Some schmuck trusted us! You people who pirate software must come to understand the very real effect your theft has on small (and large) software authors and pub- lishers. You're stealing. You're depriving people of their basic right of compensation for labor. You're depriving people of their basic needs like paying rent. Or buying food. You think this is over dramatizing the situation? Try quitting YOUR job and pinning all YOUR hopes on a software product. We'll see how you feel about piracy then. Just say no - to software theft. Perry S. Kivolowitz
mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) (07/08/87)
In article <479@atux01.UUCP> perry@atux01.UUCP (P. Kivolowitz) writes:
<Just say no - to software theft.
D*mn straight. If it weren't for people without the common decency to
play by the rules, the concept of "copy protection" would never have
been invented. As usual, a few ***holes have managed to make life for
everyone somewhat less pleasant.
<How'd this idea work out? (ie: place trust in our fellow person?) Well
<in one case someone uploaded Facc and its manuals (complete with copy-
<right notice and plea not to pirate) to a bbs and called it ``newadd-
<buffers.'' Here everyone. Feast upon this! Some schmuck trusted us!
Sorry to hear about it. Are you taking legal action?
<mike
--
Lather was thirty years old today, Mike Meyer
They took away all of his toys. mwm@berkeley.edu
His mother sent newspaper clippings to him, ucbvax!mwm
About his old friends who'd stopped being boys. mwm@ucbjade.BITNETlear@aramis.rutgers.edu (eliot lear) (07/09/87)
I would just like to point out (again) that software pirating is a catch 22 and that people are much more prown to pay for a product when it is affordable. I do not condone pirating but most software is so outragiously expensive (due, in part, to pirates), that it makes pirating very attractive to many. And no, I myself, do not pirate software. Eliot PS: Thank you, Fred Fish. -- Eliot Lear Rutgers University Department of Mathematics [lear@rutgers.edu]
adamsd@pnet01.CTS.COM (Adams Douglas) (07/10/87)
As someone who is in the latter stages of writing an Amiga product, I found myself asking myself many of the above arguments and questions. I am writing an astronomy application to be called Planetarium. It will be distributed by Microillusions (Faery Tale, DynamiCad). I did not quit my existing job to write it, and have not had too much trouble working it into my free time. I intend it to be the best possible planetarium program on the Amiga (I know about Galileo). Microillusions will copy protect it. And I will probably add some simple "what is on page 29 of the manual" kind of copy-protection. The reason is that MicroIllisions is still a small company that is just beginning to be successful. They are trying very hard to get ahold of the best Amiga programmers they can to produce the best possible products (this is not put in as advertising hype). I sincerely believe that with the low volume of product they have been able to put out so far, their future would be put in serious jeopardy by releasing non-copy-protected software. They believe that the Amiga is the best machine around, and although I am otherwise indifferent to the topic of copy-protection, I feel strongly about it in this case.