From: cmcurtin@bluemoon.rn.com (Matthew Curtin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: The Perennial Piracy Debate (was Re: Bilestoad)
Date: 30 Jul 92 12:50:40 GMT
Organization: Blue Moon BBS ((614) 868-998[024])

bazyar@teal.csn.org (Jawaid Bazyar) writes:

> >   2) You assume that each piracy equates to a lost sale, at your arbitrary
> >      price, and that in every case the program would have been purchased
> >      if it hadn't been cloned.
> 
>   Arbitrary price? I think not.  We priced GNO *very* fairly, and any of
> our customers will tell you that.  Nintendo cartridges are (IMHO)
> priced excessively.  However, IIgs games that cost half what a NES
> game does get pirated, simply because it's possible.  THIS DOES NOT
> MAKE IT RIGHT.

As a Procyon customer, I feel I must speak my peace on this. 

GNO, is, I believe, worth much more than its sticker price. Consider what 
a similar product on an Intel box (eek!) would cost. However, Procyon has 
made every effort to keep the price of their software from becoming too 
much for the average GS user to buy. If I remember correctly, when the 
announcement was made about the formation of Procyon, this was something 
specifically stated. In any case, Procyon has given us a tremendous 
product at a price that is more than reasonable.

Someone mentioned earlier that they are going to buy GNO now, because they 
downloaded a copy from a pirate BBS and liked it. He then justified piracy 
for the purpose of giving software the chance to be used and tested before 
it's purchased. Some people don't seem to understand that a commercial 
product is "shareware" for them just because it costs more money than they 
have sitting in their wallet at the moment. The fact of the matter is 
this: Pirates, regardless of their intent, are killing the machine they 
claim to love. If they do not pay for the software they use WHEN THEY 
SHOULD (in the case of Shareware, after they've tested it; in the case of 
commercial software, before they take it home to use it), the developers 
will not be able to get the money that is due to them for their efforts.

Please allow me to quote from the GNO documentation:

"...We are Apple II programmers born, bred, and raised in the spirit of 
the machine; we love to program it, and probably always will. But if we 
cannot make enough moeny to make it worthwhile to continue work on GNO, 
then we won't; because by _worthwhile_, we mean not only food on the 
table, but resources for expansion; the expansion of our IIgs product line 
and support to IIgs owners being abandoned by the rest of the industry. In 
short, support us and we'll support you."

We cannot expect great programmers who could make tremendous amounts of 
money programming other machines to write great software for us IIgs users 
out of the goodness of their hearts.

I think that a problem we might be having with this argument is this: Few 
pirates are willing to come forward with any reasons why they steal 
software. Many of us who speak about piracy do so against it, and, 
therefore, do not understand the mindset of the pirate. The issues 
involving piracy are many; perhaps we are not addressing the right ones to 
cause pirates to think twice about what they're doing...

Thank you, Procyon, for continuing to support us with your great software.

(P.S. Do I get free upgrades on GNO from now on? ;-) )
product costs $80, and they don't have that money sitting in their wallet.
> -- 
>  Jawaid Bazyar              |   Ask me about the GNO Multitasking Environment
>  Procyon, Inc.              |   for the Apple IIgs!   
>  bazyar@cs.uiuc.edu         |   P.O Box 620334
>  --Apple II Forever!--      |   Littleton, CO 80162-0334   (303) 933-4649


 ___________________________________________________________________________
| C. Matthew Curtin             ! "But I am the enlightened one, they are  |
| P.O. Box 27081                ! but mere sheep, following each other in  |
| Columbus, OH 43227-0081       ! the name of compatibility." -B. Heineman |
| cmcurtin@bluemoon.uucp        !              Apple II Forever!           |
|_cmcurtin%bluemoon@nstar.rn.com!_____________Support__Shareware!__________|
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2