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From: hadeishi@husc4.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copy protection: boycott it!
Message-ID: <2478@husc6.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 12:03:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: husc6.2478
Posted: Tue Jul  7 12:03:55 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jul-87 05:48:28 EDT
References: <4826@sgi.SGI.COM> <4238@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: news@husc6.UUCP
Reply-To: hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi)
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 68
Keywords: piracy, copy protection, bungled burglary
Summary: Minor flames ahead

In article <2374@hoptoad.uucp> farren@hoptoad.UUCP (Mike Farren) writes:
> [ quotes experience with companies with copy protection that does not
> indicate that it is necessary, i.e., Epyx, Penguin, and Beagle Bros. ]

	I do not dispute your experiences, Mike.  I, too, greatly
appreciate Beagle Bros. tools.  Epyx added copy protection a LONG time
ago (as you know) and at the time their games were often distributed
on tape (thus making it rather trivial to make copies, no matter what
copy protection scheme you used), if I'm not mistaken (please correct
me if I'm wrong.)  As for Penguin, I reserve judgement.

	However, it is clear that game manufacturers have a hard time
making enough money to survive, and it is also clear that they lose
money to software piracy.  Quite a few game companies have gone out
of business recently or been bought out (by EA, typically :-).
Copy protection was a deterrent, at least for me, to copy games;
when I was a kid I simply said I would always buy a copy of any
piece of software that I would use regularly (shareware ethic).  Copy
protection, by making it difficult to copy software, makes you think
before pirating; I happen to think that it should NOT be done,
no matter what your excuses are, if you are going to use the product.
If you're not going to use it, go without.  That is the honorable thing
to do.

	I don't think people are in disagreement that piracy is
a wrong thing to do.  The programmer deserves the money!  That is
basically my point.  I don't buy the argument that copy protection
makes games unusable (unless it is STUPID protection, i.e., if it
writes to the disk or something unutterably dumb like that---note
that EA products, for all their "frustrations" do NOT write to the
master disk EVER.)

>I know of at least 10 people who will not buy another EA product, no
>matter how good, because of the experience they have had with the
>existing products, and their frustration and anger at products which
>are annoying to use.

	Again, I don't buy it.  Many technical people were angry at
EA because they perceived EA as this big, bad company that was out to
rip people off or something.  This is totally ridiculous.  I work there,
and I know that EA is made up of thoughtful, good people, just like you
and me, and to "punish" them by not buying their products is the
kind of "us-them" mentality which has often been the downfall of
nations.  What is annoying about having copy protection on your
copy of Marble Madness?  I mean, do you seriously expect to
play that game so much that the disk fails?  (I certainly haven't.)
You can get a replacement from EA if it does fail.  What more do you
want?  As for unprotected tools, as I mentioned before, EA quickly
responded to user pressure and provided unprotected versions of
ALL of its productivity tools, in a manner similar to Borland.
I don't see people saying "I'll never buy another Borland product"!
I'm not saying that copy protected games are not less convenient than
unprotected games, just that it is ridiculous to penalize them
by not buying ANY future products, whether or not they offer
unprotected versions, whether or not the programmers who worked on
them deserve the sales, whether or not the programs are useful, fun,
or imaginative, just because they, like MOST game software manufacturers,
happen to protect their game software.  This is simply small-minded
vindictiveness, of the same sort that causes feuds to last for generations,
that causes violence between the Sikhs and the Hindus, the Tamils
and the Buddhists, the prejudice between whites and blacks.  I do not
expect to change your mind or the minds of your friends, I am simply
saddened to hear about it.  It reduces my hope for humanity.  However,
I hope there are enough forgiving souls out there who do not make
such snap judgements about the hundreds of people who happen to work
under the shared appellation "Electronic Arts."

			-Mitsu