Re: A2 Trade/Swap???? site discovered ... another Vogon success story

["Ernest" <ernestls@home.com>]

Paul Schlyter wrote in message <8jqao3$lah$1@merope.saaf.se>...
>In article <jeff-D77D29.17413902072000@nntp.cts.com>,
>Jeff Jungblut  <jeff@nospam.soapzone.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <8jod24$kq$1@merope.saaf.se>, pausch@saafNOSPAM.se (Paul
>> Schlyter) wrote:
>>
>>> Another activity to fight piracy is to try to make software available
>>> legally for free.  If a legal and free software alternative is
>>> available, then it becomes uninteresting to try to pirate a software
>>> product.
>>
>> Er, what?  I don't know anyone who uses pirated A2 software for *fun* or
>> because it's *more interesting.*  It's used because (a) it may perform
>> whatever functions the user wants to perform, and (b) it's no longer
>> available for sale.

Whatever A2 software I happen to be using, I use it for fun, even if it's
doing something
practical like keeping track of my record collection, etc.. Let's face it,
most of us use our
Apple II's because we enjoy it, not because we, sigh... have work to do.


>You can deal with (b) in two ways:
>
>1. Contact the original author and ask if it's now OK to redistribute
>his program for free -- like I did with the authors of S-C Assembler
>and Flash!

Yes, the original owners are always very easy to find, too.

>2. Find another, equivalent, piece of software which can be redistributed
>for free, legally.

Yes, there are lots and lots of free equivilents to to every single piece of
ancient Apple II software. The net is sick with it, and you only have to
spend a few years of your life looking for it. If you can't find what you're
looking for after the first few years, be patient. Maybe someone will die
and will their Apple II software collection to you, or if you shit long
enough in the right ear (see copywrite holder,) or secretly pay off one of
the morally upstanding controllers... er, ah, defenders, of ancient software
to get a copy, just remember, before you simply click, download, and move
on... there are alternatives!

>> People may have lots of different reasons for using unlicensed A2
>> software, but *sport* really isn't one of the believable ones.

Using unlicensed A2 software is a true sport for me, let me tell ya! I get a
real adrenaline rush from downloading a really old A2 game from some free
site. There was this one time I remember, when I was trying to download a
copy of Zaxxon. Geez, the site was slow, my cable modem was acting up, and
there was bacon in my samich.  What a struggle! I was eventually able to
bring that sucker in but it liked to a killed me. I must have slept for a
week straight, after that. That's the kind of thing that'll put hair your
chest, as my Pappy used to say.

>Then how come uncracked A-II games quite often bears a note saying
>something like  "Cracked by <some_name>" ?
>
>And since the vast majority of Apple II software were games, the
>focus of the typical Apple II user clearly was entertainment rather
>than usefullness.

I know. Isn't it a real shame that everyone can't be so serious and
purposeful?

E

>----------------------------------------------------------------
>Paul Schlyter,  Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
>Grev Turegatan 40,  S-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
>e-mail:  pausch at saaf dot se   or    paul.schlyter at ausys dot se
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