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From: barry@aurora.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copy protection: boycott it!
Message-ID: <761@aurora.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 01:37:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: aurora.761
Posted: Tue Jul  7 01:37:34 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jul-87 06:14:24 EDT
References: <4826@sgi.SGI.COM> <4238@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <640@nis.NIS.MN.ORG> <2470@husc6.UUCP>
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 49
Keywords: piracy, copy protection, bungled burglary
Summary: copy protection is useless.

In article <2470@husc6.UUCP>, hadeishi@husc4.HARVARD.EDU (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes:
>In order for
>large-scale projects such as the ones envisioned by the consumer
>software companies to get off the ground, some type of copy deterrent
>is going to be required, or the consumer software industry could not
>survive.

	I see two problems with this reasoning. First, many commercial
products which were *not* copy-protected have enjoyed immense success.
The first example that comes to mind is Wordstar, which first achieved
its original enormous popularity as a CP/M program. Like virtually all
CP/M software, it was not copy-protected. Even in its IBM incarnation, I
don't believe it has been protected. If memory serves, Micropro
experimented briefly with protecting it, then gave it up as a bad idea.
	The other, greater problem with copy-protection, is that it
fails to accomplish its purpose. I started out my computer hobby on
Apple ][s, where both copy protection and piracy were rampant. I used to
get offered copies of games before they had even been marketed! Kids
stripped the copy-protects of games as a hobby. Of the hundreds of
copy-protected games I encountered, there was only one where I never saw
a deprotected, pirate version in common circulation, and that one was
still copied routinely, with bit-copy programs.

>	What will happen is if games are distributed without copy
>protection to the mass market (I exclude the Amiga from "mass market
>since it tends to be a hacker's machine, and there is a kind of
>hacker ethic which precludes illicit copying) is that the game
>manufacturers will be unable to stay in business because of loss
>of hard-earned remuneration for their work due to illicit copying.

	The record says otherwise. Until the Apple ][ succumbed to
obselescence and competition from IBM, the major vendors of Apple ][
game software were making very big bucks, despite the widespread
availability of pirated versions. My impression is that most pirated
software was in the hands of folks who would not have bought the
programs anyway. In any case, the copy protection did not inconvenience
pirates one whit. Only the legitimate users were hurt.
	I will tolerate copy-protection on game software, but it's still
an utter waste of time for the vendors. The only effective counter to
piracy I know of, is to make the extras that accompany the program as
valuable as the executable - good, useful manuals, and vendor support.
And if a game's so simple that manuals and support are unnecessary, the
price should be too low to make piracy attractive anyway.

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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