Re: Piracy

[guenter@student.uni-kl.de (Marvin)]

All fanatics on csa2 together wrote:

:    So, you want a WAR - you've got a WAR!

This whole thing begins to tire me. Has Joe Kohn not told in one of his
previous postings that he has never experienced such a thing? Are the A2
users not willing to pay for good work?

Why do people pirate? Well, I think there are two types of pirates, the
'good' and the 'evil' one.

The 'good' pirate:
- loves the IIgs and wants to support it.
- downloads all he can find because "what you have is what you have"
- pirates only shit games like Gauntlet gs
- BUYS good programs like Rastan, LemminGS etc. because he wants more
- pays Shareware fees for good PD
- gives programs to others but reminds them to buy good ones soon
- may be able to remove any copy/password protection, but includes
  motivations to buy good programs (Seen in Rastan + Windwalker)
- Has his own code of honor

The 'evil' pirate:
- sneers at the IIgs but gets randy when he sees the latest Pentium
- uses only emulators and saves his treasures in emulator format.
- Never reminds anybody to buy anything, except for 'his' system
- Doesn't care if the gs dies.
- Feels free to steal everything in the world.

I think that both types of pirates deserve different treatments:
'Good' ones are pirates, yes, but also loyal customers and they can't
be forced to do something. The only way to deal with them is to
appeal to their reason repeatedly. Especially kids can learn quickly.

'Evil' pirates can't be forced, too, because they are generally
uninterested in the IIgs and it's developers ("Hey, have you seen
Wolfenstein 3D in VGA??"). The only way to get rid of them is to write
software which runs only on 'metal' IIgs. Of course, this will lead to
more sophisticated emulators and so on. I guess the best treatment is
to ignore these guys, they simply don't qualify as potential customers.

I think starting a witch hunt, will only lead to another flame war
and seriously damage the motivation of both developers and customers.

Remember:

"Only love can defeat software piracy!"

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"Ford had his own code of ethics. It wasn't              __
much of one, but it was his and he stuck by it, |\/| /\ |__||  | | |\  |
more or less. One rule he made was never to     |  ||__||\  |  | | | \ |
buy his own drinks. He wasn't sure if that      |  ||  || \  \/  | |  \|
counted as an ethic, but you have to go with
what you've got. And furthermore he would
never steal from his employers."

Need Apple II gs software? Visit ftp.uni-kl.de...

Visit the Vogon hold at http://www.student.uni-kl.de/~guenter/vogon.html
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