wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) (08/09/90)
"Piracy" is one of those things that it is diffficult to draw sides on unless you are already on one side or the other. Given strictly from my point of view, for whatever that is worth: I can see the point of view of a person whoo is the "creator" of a copyrightable work. HE created it presumably with the idea of making money from it - if there are 10 individuals who are potential consumers of said work, but only one BUYS it and then copies it for the other nine, I'd say the "creator" of the work has every right to be extremely annoyed. If he were to say screw it and find a different line of work I wouldn't blame him - and of course, if enough "creators" of whatever type of work did the same thing, there would be quite a hole in the market. This could apply to software, music, written material, broadcast information, or anything that can be copyrighted and legally protected. But I don't think the "blame" for nastiness really should be directed from any consumers back toward the "creator" or "artist". IMHO, the middlemen who are jacking the prices up in each step of manufacturing, distribution and sales, deserve the eternal IRE of the consumer. Some of the numbers for how much, by %, profit actually gets back to the "creator" are shocking. It is much LESS than you'd think. I do not personally go out and ask people to pirate software for me. As for whether or not I have any, you can guess.... :-) At any rate, I get pissed when I see a C64 game that is retailing for anything much over $25 or so. If I look around enough, I can usually find someone who is selling a particular game (or any other bit of software) for something closer to what *I* think is a reasonaable price to pay. Disks are available cheap when you buy in bulk, like a company who sells these packages does. Cardboard and printing is also fairly cheap, at least in the context of the price we consumers pay for the fancy packaging. (the disk and the package sure as hell ain't worth all the $$$$$ we get asked for) I really think that what we are looking at is just simple GREED on the part of the company that makes and distributes the stuff. Trying to be fair to all sides, I don't think that for all of us to go out and pirate software will reduce the price. What it MAY do is chase software houses away from the C64 and into other markets, like MACs and Itty Bitty Machines (and clones thereof) which is a pretty good sized market. I think it might be more effective to single out individual companies who have the reputation of charging mega$$$$ - and overflow their mail boxes with complaints. While this may or may not work, they will be aware that you are pissed. BTW, at the same time, contact the guy who wrote the game/package/whatever and let him/her know that you would like to buy his/her game. While he/she may not be able to affect that one (the rights for sales/distrib have probably been signed away) it certainly can affect who he/she chooses to write for in the future. And if the company is unresponsive, boycott them! While this may have the effect of getting their attention, I think it is less likely to drive them away than massive pirating. If they feel that they can do better selling LOTS of software with a reduced price on each unit, they will do it. As I said, this is strictly my opinion - I would not presume to shove any notions of computer morality down your throats (because most of you would tell me where to shove what.....). I think we should be able to find a way to be fair to the person who WROTE the program without getting ripped off by the guy who SELLS it. Duane Mantick
collins@Alliant.COM (Phil Collins) (08/09/90)
Hey Joe The former ESI member,Gene said you moved away and tno one can get in touch with you.