Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!rutgers!ucla-cs!cit-vax!elroy!ames!ptsfa!hoptoad!academ!killer!elg From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Copy protection: A marketing analysis Message-ID: <1157@killer.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Jul-87 05:12:16 EDT Article-I.D.: killer.1157 Posted: Sun Jul 19 05:12:16 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jul-87 00:36:41 EDT References: <207@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM> Organization: Bayou Telecommunications Lines: 40 in article <207@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM>, denbeste@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste) says: > 3. Customer loses the gizmo and needs another one: How do I tell this guy from > a clever pirate trying to sneak in the back door? In fact I cannot, and my > reaction to this is to tell him to search harder for the gizmo. I may lose > some repeat sales, but that's how it goes. This is more than made up by the > fact that my product is virtually unpiratable. Wow. You are really a cool marketing dude, y'know? Obviously you haven't been inside The Computer Clutter (my back room, with two walls covered with workbenches and shelves, and about 2 feet of printouts piled beside each chair alongside moldy old pizzas and fermenting 7-Up). I'm still searching for the dongle to the last gizmo'ed program I got (which was a horse-betting program that costed $9 at a clearance sale). Last I saw, the package was in the bottom of the steel bookcase, but apparently the dongle fell out somewhere, 'cause it weren't there. That is NOT a very good track record. One dongleized program, one unusable program. It does NOT put me in a good mood for buying any other donglized program. Especially when manufactures have such sh*tty attitudes... "well, sh*t-fer-brains, you'll have to buy another copy of my great program, huh? That's what you get for being such an ignorant stupid dirty pirate thief SOB!". Very disturbing to a normal legall user.... for example, a friend lost his MicroSloth "C" manuals when moving from Georgia to here. Call Microsoft.... "I'm sorry, but we do not ship manuals" (leaving unsaid the phrase "dirty pirate thief SOB", but you could hear it in the overtones). He eventually ended up copying it from his place of employment... took him three hours to copy those huge manuals. The rule of thumb in retail is "the customer is always right". That's why Sears will refund your money cheefully if you bring it back to them, no matter for what reason. Sure, they get ripped, occasionally, but how many people do you know who'd go to a store that said "you're all dirty thiefs trying to rip us off"? Very insulting to the average Honest Schmoe.... Eric Green elg%usl.CSNET Ron Headrest: A President {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg for the Electronic Age! Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 BBS phone #: 318-984-3854 300/1200 baud