Nathans leaving

[dboomsma@sci.kun.nl (Doede Boomsma)]

Too bad Nathan is leaving.

Though he was a skilled programmer for the Apple II and had alot of
knowledge about the computer, he seemed to suffer from a depression the
last year/ months (?) he was here.

I understand his point of view. Seeing others destroy what he had tried
to build up and make his money with, must be very frustrating.

Alot people may not be careful enough to check out the Apple II
resources and buy software, but one cannot expect that someone who pulls
his old Apple II out of the closet, which hasn't been used and heard of
in 10 years, will check out the A2 software vendor list.

When you need software, you check it out on internet. You run across the
common ftp-servers and download software. You may run across a site
called asimov, and download software, not knowing it is illegal to
download from there.

You can't blame someone from copying software in a country where really
NO-ONE except a little 100 freaks know about the Apple II (like over
here, the Netherlands). And usually this is about old software which
isn't published anymore. This doesn't make it legal, but if you don't
know where to get it, you can't get it. And it's even harder when you
don't even have internet.

Of course you have the nerds who copy everything and nothing. New or
old, it doesn't matter to them. But WHO let's them copy the software? It
must be the ones who originally bought new software. So who really is
guilty here?

Nathan does/ did make a point. My personal opinion is that he
overreacted a bit, but he tried to protect the remaining software. Like
we all should do. We all know this is impossible, but WE are the ones
that have to be sure that WE don't have our personal disks copied.
Together we should (will?) be strong, but pirates will always be around.

My Dutch 2 cents.

      --Doede