Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga pirating...
Message-ID: <8812062316.AA06717@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 6 Dec 88 23:16:36 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 59

:Lately I've been seeing a lot of writing about copying software  on  the
:Amiga,  and  quite  frankly I'm getting worried. I just recently sold my
:Atari ST, and one of the major reasons was  because  of  the  amount  of
:pirating  that  is done on that computer. I'm part of a developers group
:and we recently switched to programming for the Amiga. Is  the  pirating
:problem  bad  on  the  Amy? I've seen the ST fizzle slowly as the pirate
:BBS's added HD's. Has this recent trend snuck into the Amiga  community?
:One that seemed more serious than that?

	There is pirating on every computer.  I like to think that, due to 
the type of the majority of people who bought the original Amiga's and those
who are now buying Amiga's, there is more responsibility relative to other
microcomputers (IBM-PC's, Apple II's, and, sadly, the new Atari's).  It is
difficult for professional pirates to gain a base in the Amiga community 
when their prospective clients are more likely to turn them in.  I would be
stupid to say that pirating doesn't exist on the Amiga, and I for one do not
underestimate pirates as most corporations do.

	On this group, except for one poor high school student many
months ago who didn't realize who he was talking to, there are no
professional pirates in active discussion.  All of the discussion on
copying disks relates to the following points:

	(1) disk based copyprotection, especially when the disk gets
	    written to, usually destroys the disk and makes the 
	    game unusable after a period of time.

	(2) Honest people are not allowed to make backups, or are so
	    limited that even being allowed a single backup is useless.

	(3) In many cases it is not possible to put the game on one's
	    HD. (This is BIG).

	On a related topic, nobody likes a game which takes over the entire
machine.  Most commercial games do this, which is utterly useless to many
of us who want to do other things at the same time.  This is a relatively
new concept due to the multi-tasking nature of the Amiga.  All of this also
pertains to commercial software (non-games) but to a lesser extent.

	Fortunetly, there are many PD, Freeware, and Shareware games
out there that serve to give the professional companies notice that their
methods of protection and philosophy of machine are outdated.  My favorites
are:

	Larn
	Asteriods
	Amoeba

	I have other favorites but I am thinking fast now and haven't
the time to remember them (ha).  The three above are very well written,
do not take over the machine, do not crash the machine, have no copy
protection (of course, being PD/Fw/Sw), can be installed on one's
HD, and do not make tacit assumptions as to the configuration of the
machine.

	So what you will have here often are a lot of flames directed towards
software companies for being idiots in their schemes.

					-Matt