Re: What about an Apple Gamebase ?

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

exegete@nunya.biz writes ...
> 
> Rubywand wrote:
 ....
> 
> For all the verbiage, you still haven't denied that sometimes piracy did
> take place.

     There are hundreds of thousands of Apple II users. A few have had sites
with a couple items which were still being sold commercially by the owners of
the software or authorized distributors. That could be called "piracy". The
Apple II community and site admins worked to have the items removed.


> Nor have you dealt with the fact that ISPs and others
> "farther upstream" were more than willing to shut down sites that they,
> not some "who ranted about piracy'", shut down the sites. There was
> enough legitimate concern that responsible individuals and corporations
> acted in an adult, responsible manner.

     Everyone knows that any complaint to an ISP about ~Copyright Violations~
can easily lead to a site being shut down-- doesn't mean that shutting down the
site was reasonable, responsible, or justified.


> 
> Sure, these sites are useful, and helpful. No doubt most, even the
> overwhelming majority of the II catalog is PD, freeware or
> "abandonware." But that doesn't excuse the fact that real piracy had
> taken place, perhaps even now is taking place. And that among the most
> vocal defenders of these repositories were the worst pirates known in
> the Apple II world. One of whom, before departing (once again), admitted
> that he had pirated software. Oh, and on one of his resurrections
> retracted that statement.

     One so-called "pirate" showed me an emailed apology from his strongest
critic. Sometimes it takes a while to put things in proper perspective.

     Activision, Origin, EA, ..., and Apple know perfectly well that their old
Apple II software (and firmware) is all over the net. They choose to allow free
distribution of such wares because they benefit.


> 
> There are what, half a dozen, or a couple of dozen packages still being
> sold? It should be easy to insure that such piracy doesn't happen again.
> I hope those who maintain such sites today are guarding against any
> future piracy.
>
> Roy

     They seem to be doing fine.


Rubywand