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From: bell@unc.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Summary: Invade comp.misc with the copy protection argument
Message-ID: <5769@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 8 Dec 88 05:59:25 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: bell@unc.UUCP (Andrew Bell)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 44

In article <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek) writes:
>> How does SSI come up with the 4:1 ratio?  I simply can't believe that half
>> of these people would have paid money for the package if they couldn't
>> pirate it -- it flies directly in the face of what I have experienced.

>Not me, that's a very conservative ratio.

>That  4:1  Ratio  is  very
>conservative,  probably  because  the  Amiga community is mostly honest,
>productive users. In the ST market, I would say the ratio is  more  like
>10:1.  A  neighboor with an ST in my home town had EVERY single software
>title ever released. He called himself a collector; 90% of his stuff was
>pirated.

What you have is the ratio of pirated copies to non-pirated copies.  So what?
If I could make copies of porsches,  I'd probably have one,  even though I
can't afford to buy one.  Was that neighbor going to buy every piece of
of ST software if the copy protection is perfect?  Don't be ridiculous.

Most big-time pirates are fairly young,  and don't have the disposable
income to buy that much software. 

The ratio of copies that you would sell if copy protection always worked
versus the number of copies you sell in our imperfect world is what the other
poster was talking about.  This is very hard to measure,  of course,  but
I would doubt it's anywhere near 4:1.

>You  gave  many  reasons why companies should not copy-protect software,
>now how about some ideas in how to stop piracy.

Step one:  think about what piracy actually hurts customers.  That would be
piracy by business and professional people,  who have the income to buy the
software.

Note follow-ups to comp.misc.

>What about technology, computers, .------------------. J.A.Cisek



------
Andrew Bell,  living a double life at bell@cs.unc.edu and acb@cs.duke.edu
"Why can't we ever attempt to solve a problem in this country without having
a 'War' on it?" -Rich Thomson, talk.politics.misc