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From: lew@ihlpa.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.micro.cbm
Subject: A pirate is born
Message-ID: <845@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Oct-85 23:04:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.845
Posted: Sun Oct 27 23:04:44 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Oct-85 01:14:14 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 23

I bought BEACHEAD II by ACCESS at Toys R Us for 29.95 yesterday. When
I tried to load it the first time, I got a standard blue screen READY prompt
and a dead keyboard. As I started looking at the brochure which warned me that
I would probably have to try about six different drives before I could load
it ( well ... ) , I tried twice more and got load errors.

Finally, a screen started to scroll upward. Oh, I thought, just like
STAR WARS. This turned out to be a short essay on the relation of copyright
laws to the history of home computers followed by the declaration that
this was a pirated copy. Boy was I mad. I called (collect) the number of
ACCESS and told them what happened and that I was just going to take it
back and get a refund and that it wasn't worth it for a lousy game and so on.
That was satisfying.

The smart little essay I mentioned ended with the remark. "Welcome to the
wonderful world of piracy." Well, so be it. By the way, I feel certain that
this was a legitimate copy since I bought it a large distributor and it
was hermetically sealed with crisp literature and labelling.

I haven't been reading the net for a while so I'm sorry if I'm reviving
some interminable discussion (seems likely) but this is a new one on me.

Lew Mammel, Jr. ATT BL