Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hoptoad!pozar
From: pozar@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Pozar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: What is this 'hypercard' thing anyway?
Message-ID: <3569@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 9 Dec 87 21:13:33 GMT
References: <3834@bellcore.bellcore.com> <35045@sun.uucp> <5204@zen.berkeley.edu> <3826@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Syncstream/Widget Systems (San Francisco)
Lines: 36

hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Robert Joseph Hammen) wrote:
> In article <5204@zen.berkeley.edu> grady@postgres.berkeley.edu (Steven Grady) writes:
> >>>Is it true Apple is giving the thing away?  Can I get a copy for
> >>>myself easily?  How?
> >>
> >>You get it free if you buy a Mac. you get it for $49 if you already own one.
> >
> >Last I heard (in a videotape of a conference by one of the author's),
> >it is unprotected, and giving away copies is encouraged.
> 
> What you may be referring to is a comment made by Bill Atkinson at a "User 
> Group Breakfast" session at MacWorld/Boston. Someone who was a BBS sysop was
> complaining that everyone had to have a copy of HyperCard to use stacks, and
> urged Atkinson to produce a run-time version. Atkinson replied "Well, if the
> $49 is really a problem, HyperCard is not copy-protected." It was interesting
> to see the faces of some of the Apple people there turn red...

   For $49 you get a pretty good user's guide (my roommate wrote
it, plug, plug) and the latest software.  I kinda doubt that
Apple is makeing a hell of a lot off of the retail price.  I
know that the 'profits' that are produced off of the direct
purchase of the software was not the reason for it's
development.  Apple knows that hardware isn't worth the silicon
in it unless there is some software to run on it.  Hypercard (I
liked the original name for it better, 'Wildcard') will make
Apple more money off of the machines it will sell.  Apple if
it's smart, and I think it is thinking in this direction will
look the other direction on copying.

-- 
=======================================================================
| ...sun!hoptoad!\                                     Tim Pozar      |
|                 >fidogate!pozar               Fido:  1:125/406      |
|  ...lll-winken!/                            PaBell:  (415) 788-3904 |
|         USNail:  KKSF  77 Maiden Lane  San Francisco CA 94108       |
=======================================================================