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From: jabusch@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Re: software protection - dongl
Message-ID: <5100095@uiucdcsb>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 22:15:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.5100095
Posted: Wed Aug 14 22:15:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:37:02 EDT
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Nf-From: uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA!jabusch    Aug 14 21:15:00 1985



	There is another option to purchasing Supercalc, if you are interested.
I think Supercalc is a good product, but for those of you out there that must
have Lotus, there was an article on a Lotus look-alike in two of the recent 
trade journals.  I can't remember the name exactly, but it was indicative of
the fact that it looked like another product already on the market.
	I would go that way long before buying Lotus now...  

	Also, for those ideas that Mr. Lerner described for packages that
give demos or work fine but won't save if you don't have the key... I have
one question:  Does this mean that if I have, say, a portable, or two
machines, or have some other reason for having to remove the keyring, and
I then forget to put it back on, that the software might let me work for
two hours and then refuse to save my work?  If so, that's just one more
attack on the innocent bystander using less than moral ethics on the vendor's
part to try to get even with pirates!
	I am sure that no matter how much software protection you are willing
to put up with, be it keyring or armed guard, no vendor out there is likely
to put any sort of guarantee on it for the time lost due to some programming
bug or feature.  That is, how many vendors at this time guarantee their 
product to the extent that they will cover your losses due for some reason
to the use of their program?  None, that I know of.  Now, how many are likely
to change?  None, that I know of.  As it is, very few of them even guarantee
that their program will work, let alone correctly!  Take a look at the license
that comes with 123.
	There was an individual who recently claimed that owning software was
equivalent to owning tires for a car, ie: you don't change car tires, so why
change software from CPU to CPU?  Well, the same goes there... Tire manufac-
turers give *decent guarantees in writing* for their tires to the buyer!!!
I might be tempted to buy software if it was offered with a reasonable
warantee or something, although I do have to qualify that with 'tempted'.
After all, if I buy a new tire and its tread separates while I am on an
expressway and I total my car, the tire company has a guarantee that will
cover that damage.  If I buy software and it blows up and destroys a lot
of files, who's going to do anything?  Certainly not the vendor or author
of the program, even though I might have been charged an exhorbitant amount
for it!

Enough said...         


John W. Jabusch
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