[net.micro] copy protection query

ge@mcnc.UUCP (George Entenman) (09/26/85)

A friend of mine has an expensive software package for her
ibm-xt.  She wants me to use it to do some work for her on my
zenith z-150, which doesn't have a hard disk.  She warned
me to be careful with the floppy because they apparently get
trashed easily and cost $50 to replace (outrageous price in
my opinion, after paying $1200).

I would like to make a backup copy of this floppy disk.  I feel
that this is ethically okay because she has paid for the software
and because I will work for her (without pay).

So my question is: if I put protection tape on the floppy, is there
any way that attempting to copy the floppy can possibly damage the disk
and require another $50 replacement?  It seems to me that if you
can't write to the disk, attempting to copy it can't hurt it.

				George Entenman
				MCNC