Re: I'm at a loss for words

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

Steve Mentzer (smentzer@pacbell.net) wrote:
: The bottom line is that Nathan Mates is trying to play "god" over a small
: but dedicated legion of Apple II users and fanatics. It is unfortunate that
: he has made it his pet project to attempt to regulate and control what people
: can and cannot get from places such as the asimov archive. 

: If he does not believe in piracy, then fine. I dont agree with piracy either, 
: but this is not 1985 and the Apple II has long since been dead. The only thing
: any of us have left is our ability to use software that we once loved and
: adored.

I would like to have a reminder to buy originals if you like them in the
Asimov .login file. This would be a nice gesture. I understand that there
are people who want to make archives of classic software and I understand
that there are people who want to buy it. I think you can't compare
shrink-wrapped collector's items with cracked disk images which are
primarily created for use with emulators. I do really think that pirates
and vendors can co-exist with a little goodwill. Goodwill from the
maintainers of Asimov can be a list of existing Apple II vendors on
their site. Goodwill from everyone can be a little tolerance!

: The only other way to get the majority of this software is to buy it 
: second hand from some person selling it across the "net", or to purchase
: it from some of these "land shark" apple II dealers of software. Often
: times, these people want almost as much for the software as it was 
: 5 years ago. Highway robbery I call it. 

Gold has always been more expensive than dirt. I prefer paying $20 for
a rare piece of software which is already today a collector's item
instead of buying the new software packages which have better graphics,
much more disks and are soon obsolete together with the systems where
they are used. Remember the difference between your computer and your
computer on drugs? Well, I think if enough people buy the existing
software for the Apple, there will always be programmers and vendors
who provide us with new. Perhaps even Apple will react when they see
that there is still a market. To speak in medical terms: Death is a
matter of the brain, not a matter of the heart. If we keep the Apple
II spirit alive, the heart in Cupertino may start to beat again.

: Face it, when we copy AppleWorks 3.0, its not like making CD duplicates
: of windows NT. You have a valid argument. I never denied that.

Of course, it's not the same. Appleworks is a real program. Windows is
a bug! Of course it should be forbidden to distribute such an useless,
expensive, inefficient would-be program! (Including Microsoft)

: But comparing the piracy of old apple II software to the piracy of today
: should not be a moral issue. And if you rely on legal premise, then
: I can only ask that you look to the constitution of the united states of
: america. There are several items in the constitution that were "great
: when it was written, but dont apply to 90's society". So true is the
: case of apple II piracy. Your moral and legal argument are valid, but
: may not apply in the context of our current dilemna..

Like the computer industry, politics are somewhat contorted and corrupt
in these days. You should never make the mistake to legitimate evil deeds
as it is common in these days. The constitution is only good if it
serves the people, not only a few individuals. Same for computers. Same
for piracy. Think about your deeds, the consequences and the alternatives.
Laws without a sense in them are useless. Let your heart make the right 
decision. For example gene technology. Many years ago they regarded it
potentially dangerous. Now they are releasing their mutated creations in
huge quantities. Facts say that they are still potentially dangerous, but
the laws has been changed, so releasing them is now legal. But it is
still an evil deed and software piracy is an evil deed, too. I don't
want to join Nathan in his crusade against the unbelievers. I want that
people THINK when they follow the laws or they choose to break it...

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