cabbie@chinet.UUCP (Richard Andrews) (12/09/86)
I purposly posted the message about the developers kit being sold for $50.00 with a "open" type of attitude. These people are ripping us and Atari off! With all of the scuttle-butt and hoop-de-rah over 'Breakout', I thought that the posting would get more notice with the users of the net. Maybe no one really cares! I hope not. If these people continue to sell product that is obviously stolen from some "developer" and we as users knowingly buy the product, then we are a guilty as they are. In court that is known as being an accessory to the fact. Sure, $300.00 is a lot of money, but so is MAC65, ACTION!, and BASIC-XL for the 8 bit line. Those packages sell for $65.00 and the machines they run on cost about $65.00. If Atari chose to price the Dev. Kit the same way, then it would cost $800.00! True the docs are a little vague and need re-writing, but the .h files are the important files and are required reading for anyone doing development work. What can one person do? I suppose that letters to these companies would really do the trick. I think that if just a few of us wrote and said the unless they stopped selling the software IMMEDIATELY, we would write the Attorney General in their state, and report that they are selling stolen and pirated software. If just a few of us would do that then this type of blatent piracy would end quickly. And then people wonder why software companies (legit ones) refuse to write software for the Atari. If you want to flame me go ahead. I don't care, and it won't make a pair of fretted dingo's kidneys to me. -- ******************************************************************************* Any opinions expressed above are my own. Rich Andrews They can be yours too. Please send $19.95 to.....ihnp4!chinet!cabbie *******************************************************************************
store2@ihuxi.UUCP (Wilcox) (12/09/86)
> Sure, $300.00 is a lot of money, but so is MAC65, ACTION!, >and BASIC-XL for the 8 bit line. Those packages sell for $65.00 and >the machines they run on cost about $65.00. If Atari chose to price the >Dev. Kit the same way, then it would cost $800.00! This may sound like nitpicking, but the above statement is a little misleading. Sure, you can find the 800XL at close out price of $69.95 at Toys 'R Us, but you can also pick up a 520ST for $349.95 while you are there. Point is, all you are showing in one case is the keyboard/cpu ($65) and in the other case a complete color system ($800). The developers kit is selling for just 14% less than the cost of a 520ST keyboard/cpu, so the price ratio isn't much different. This is not to justify the selling of pirate software. I am definitely against such action and it should be pointed out to those who have the power to prosecute offenders. I'm sure that someone at Atari gets Computer Shopper. If not, these articles will make them aware that such ads exists since some of them read this news- group (Neil and Landon for sure). This is not a flame at Rich since I appreciate his comments in general and agree with him on this issue as well. Kit Kimes AT&T--Information Systems Labs 1100 E. Warrenville Rd. Naperville, IL 60566 ...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes "Technology So Advanced It's Affordable" (Atari's new tagline)