brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) (05/25/90)
I think that by and large it's not a moral decision about copy protection being right or wrong, simply that most companies don't want to make their products harder to use for their customers. So they take the hit, in the hope that it makes the customers happy. They don't enjoy taking the hit. If somebody makes a standard computer or OS with a serial number which can be queried (Some Unix systems are that way) then *software* protection might well return. It would no longer be copy protection, however, but execution protection -- requiring that the software only run on computers owned by the owner of the software. Since this would only get in the way minimally of the customer, if at all. (The only problem is if they sell their machine, they have to call the software vendor for a new authorization code -- in the future this would be done over the network or by modem to an 800 number) And we might see it again. I suspect that one reason no hardware vendors of small computers have put in serial numbers is that they don't want to stop piracy. After all, the fact that you can run tons of 'free' software on the machine is good for sales. Dealers used to (and probably still do) sell machines with the disks loaded with pirated stuff -- certainly immense numbers of DOS copies were pirated this way. And while the dealers sell software -- including DOS, and thus hurt themselves, they are far more interested in selling boxes. -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
jcmorehead@lion.uwaterloo.ca (James Christopher Morehead) (05/25/90)
Gold Disk Inc. (a major developer for the Commodore Amiga) has taken the stance that copy protection is an enormous nuisance to its customers and has rightly decided that all its North American products will be released unprotected. This is despite the knowledge that its products are widely copied illegally. In Europe, unfortunately, it is another story. Gold Disk has no choice but to release its products protected (European software distributers will generally not touch unprotected, consumer level software). The least offensive protection we could come up with is "manual protection" where the purchaser is required to enter a word from the manual everytime the program is executed. An unfortunate, but necessary, compromise. Gold Disk Inc. has yet to release an uncopiable disk and I hope that trend will continue throughout the computer industry as hard disks proliferate the low-end markets. Since this is a legal forum it should be noted that there is no evidence to indicate that copyright notices have ANY effect. Eliminating 14 year olds, however, might.... james "max" morehead. developer, Gold Disk Inc.