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From: robinson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: all copy protection
Message-ID: <19632@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 10:23:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.19632
Posted: Tue Jul  7 10:23:47 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jul-87 02:31:28 EDT
References: <1303@crash.CTS.COM> <593@madvax.UUCP> <1813@vax135.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: robinson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Michael Robinson)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 37
Keywords: excuses, excuses

In article <1813@vax135.UUCP> cjp@vax135.UUCP (Charles Poirier) writes:
>This kind of argument assumes pirates are ethical Darwinists.  Their
>noble motivation is to weed out the baddies who overcharge for rotten
>code by refusing to pay them for it.

I don't know.  I don't think "this kind of argument" assumes anything of
the sort.  In my experience, there are basically three kinds of software
pirates.  The first kind is the neurotic compulsive mega-pirate, 
responsible for 90% of pirating in general, but who has a limited impact
on the marketplace because they don't use 97% of the stuff they pirate,
and certainly wouldn't pay anything for it if they had to.  The second
kind is the determined, informed, ruthless pirate who buys a computer 
system with the expectation that they will never pay for any software,
even the useful, worthwhile stuff.  Copy protection and software 
quality are moot issues with these people, because they are never going
to pay for anything, no matter how good or cheap, and are always going
to get what they want--they go through Prolok protection like tissue paper.
The third type of pirate I have encountered is the personal or small 
business user on a budget who knows piracy is wrong, but who simply can't 
afford the $600-$1000 it costs just for a simple commercial word processing
and spreadsheet setup.  These are the people who made Turbo-Pascal an
overnight sensation, the people most deterred by copy protection, and
the people most influenced by quality and value for their money. 

But then again, these observations are based on personal experience, and
as such, completely invalid in an issue typified by argumentation like the
following:

>I just don't understand the logic of this.  Pirates are thieves.
>Typical, smirking, self-centered thieves.  Thieves are not motivated by
>social ideology.

>	Charles Poirier   (decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4,attmail)!vax135!cjp

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Mike Robinson                                 USENET:  ucbvax!ernie!robinson
                                              ARPA: robinson@ernie.berkeley.edu