Re: Asimov Mirror Sites Access Information

[a2mg@aol.comNomail (The Apple II Mail Group)]

> Why does it upset you so much? You'll put me to sleep 

I'll give you two reasons I oppose the illegal uploads, Ernest. Take the
example of the AppleWorks 5.0 upload, which I recently checked on out of
curiosity. (I don't need to pirate it; I've been a beta tester for AppleWorks
since version 3.0, and have a closet full of legal copies.) AppleWorks 5.0 was
released in 1995. That's not 15 or 20 years ago by any stretch of the
imagination.

First of all, when this upload first appeared about 2 years ago, AppleWorks 5
was still being commercially  sold. The programmers, who are my friends and
with whom I worked closely for many years, still had a small but significant
income from its sales. AppleWorks 5 is no longer sold commercially, but disks
of version 4, almost as good, are plentiful on the used market.

Second, the reason this upload bothers me is because it's a botched upload. The
upload is version 5.0, but the latest and last version of AppleWorks  is v5.1.
The uploader includes an AW 5.1 Updater alongside the somewhat buggy AppleWorks
5.0, but it just ain't the same. If you're going to pirate,  pirate it right.
The fact that a full-featured AppleWorks 5.1 has not appeard for public
download shows that the vast majority of legal owners value this program highly
and wouldn't think of making it available illegally. I believe that the illegal
version 5.0 may have been pulled off a hard drive which was resold to an
unscrupulous buyer.

I have no particular opinion about the older games, but in my opinion this is a
real case of illegal piracy. AppleWorks is owned by Apple Computer, who will
probably never release it because they want people to buy their current
"AppleWorks," which is a completely different program for the Mac. Anyone who
wants to use my findings as ammunition to kill these pirate sites has my
permission to do so. (Even if you have to make them think it's the Mac
version....)

Beverly Cadieux 
A2MG Hardware & software sale starts June 1
http://members.aol.com/A2MG