From: jahnke@biosci.arizona.edu (Jerome Jahnke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Why the Piracy? Here's why...
Date: 13 Jan 93 00:54:00 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Organization: University of Arizona

In article <1993Jan11.092226.3647@msc.cornell.edu>,
maynard@leah.msc.cornell.edu (Maynard J. Handley) wrote:
> 
> These seems to me a kinda lack of understanding of the real world here.
> Right now my expereince on campus is that people are quite willing to pay
> for a program if they feel it is worth it. When they feel they are being
> poorly treated, they feel no guilt about not paying. In many ways the
> situation is just like shareware.

Hmmmmmmmmm if you don't pay for services rendered (say from a consultant)
you get hauled into court. Just becuase you don't get a level of service
does not mean you can stop paying. If you don't pay you don't use. Is it
fair to sneak into a movie theater and not pay just because you did not
like the movie?

> So when they are charged for bug fixes, they get mad.
> When the code is left to sit for two years and never updated to 32-bits and
> VM they get mad.
> When it's written by some bozo who never tests it on a machine running a
> 24bit screen and a bw screen at the same time they get mad.
> When it seems full of senseless little deviations from the mac interface
> they get mad.
> When repeated letters to the company telling of bugs are met with no
> acknowledgment they get mad.

Then write letters to editors. Post messages on on-line services. Warn
people of your problems. Don't stay on the upgrade path. If there is a
breach of contract sue them. BUT if you don't pay for software don't use
it. Buy a competitors product.

> I also noticed a lot more piracy in my home country than in the US and I
> think this is because people resent being screwed. When a program costs
> $300 in the US and the same program (English manual and code) is sold for
> $1000 overseas, people naturally feel this is unfair. Spare me the lecture
> on how this is the law unfair or not. My point is that, in the absesnce of
> a police state, they only way you can prevent piracy is by persuading
> people it's not moral. And when companies behave in a fashion that
> indicates they are ultra-greedy, people respond appropriately.

How much of your price increase (from 300 to 1000) do you think is due to
1) import tarrifs? Which a country places on products and services to
create a less hostile environment for "local" vendors. And just plain
shipping. I think to assume that companies are greedy is wrong.

Finally it is indeed the law. And to continue to flaunt it gives rise to
organizations like the SPA which can on an anonymous tip get a warrant to
find unspecfied illegal copies of software and causing weeks of
unproductive time. If this does not sound like a police state I do not know
what does. And it is given rise due to the fact that software manufactures
are losing billions in potential dollars by people not paying.

If you are going to steal the software call it that and don't moralize it.
It is against the law wether or not you want it to be.

> Maynard Handley

Jer,
----
Jerome Jahnke
Biology Learning Center
University of Arizona
jahnke@biosci.arizona.edu or +1 (602) 621-3820