Re: OMG!

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

Kelli Halliburton wrote:

>
> Guess what? For the Apple II, writing new software and attempting to sell it
> on a commercial basis is pointless.

Except for the point on the top of your head...? Actually, there are several
points - wanting new software for your OWN Apple II, (not unlike the very first
II owners), the challenge of pushing the machine just a little bit further, and
hoping your work is appreciated enough that you can get Monday's milk money from
it.

>
>
> I won't stand up and demand that the pirates get out because the pirates
> perform a valuable service in maintaining the availability of out-of-print
> software.

Actually, eBay and thrift stores do that far better, for there one can find lots
of old software that would otherwise be thrown out. I just got up from my seat,
and without opening a single disk box, counted 59 Apple II software packages, in
the original box, that I bought from sources like these, and from the next room
another 58 just such packages. Can any of these pirates do that for me? Can they
see to that I get not just a program, but instructions, and packaging? Not all
of it is in landfills, indeed much of it is out there for the asking.

> If an author won't write a new program of type X because an old
> program of that genre is available through the services of pirates, it's not
> the illegality that's at issue -- it's the market.

What? Like games? Even when there was a huge market, software artists didn't
wish to do just another "Space Invaders" but something new, something different.
Or at least something they hadn't yet seen on the Apple II.

>
>
> Even in an ideal world with no pirates, people will *still* not spend $20
> for a program for a platform that has not been sold in 8 years.

LOL - people do so. One of the members of AppleLinc has paid the nearly $100 fee
for Opus II (and I'm saving my pennies for it), several have Spectrum, and/or
SIS. There are at least two (three?) who own the LANceGS card. People do spend
money on their hobbies, and I'd LOVE to see more and better games for the IIgs.
I'd pay for them; if they are the genre that I like.

> If the
> pirates started charging money for the software they make available, and
> start sending the appropriate royalty checks to the last known copyright
> holder, they wouldn't get a red cent.

Of course not. Such software in that form has little value. Now, I do see ONE
service that someplace like Asimov services... IF you have a blown disk, and can
no longer get the replacement disk that the publisher once offered for the (at
that time) reasonable price of $5, THEN downloading the disk image to restore
your investment seems reasonable to me.

>
>
> Projects like GNO/ME, Marinetti, and SIS are great technical
> accomplishments! They show off the capabilities of systems long thought
> obsolete -- but they're not commercially viable. Trying to sell them is not
> realistic.

But GNO/ME was a commercial product at one time. Notice how much work has been
done on it now that it's freeware??
SIS however, has undergone development, as has Spectrum. So maybe it is
realistic, and even imperative for II users to support the few developers left.


>
>
> If there was ever a newsgroup that needed to pay attention to Richard
> Stallman, it's this one. No, he does not advocate piracy. He *does* advocate
> that all software should be free, but he does not subscribe to "by any means
> necessary."
>
> Folks, writing software for the Apple II is great! Please keep up the good
> work! But be sensible and release your software as freeware, or at most,
> donationware.

In other words, please keep giving me what I want, but don't expect me to give
you anything in return. Or, I want new software, but I'm too cheap to pay for
it.

Roy