From: payner@netcom.com (Rich Payne)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Bilestoad
Date: 22 Jul 92 14:19:29 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <1992Jul21.215710.12912@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu> ejohnson@sparc3.cs.uiuc.edu (Eric E Johnson) writes:
>In <h5dmpaj.payner@netcom.com> payner@netcom.com (Rich Payne) writes:
>
>>You deleted the text that I was responding to. The publisher did not pay
>>the author for the copies of bilestoad that it sold. THIS is why he has
>>not written any more games for the A//. This is not a piracy issue.
>
>But it is.  If the game would have not been pirated, much more money
>would have been made for DataMost [I think that they are the ones who
>published Bilestoad] and they might have stayed in business.
>Regardless, someone lost money by a lot of piracy.  

I do not believe that DataMost was in financial trouble when the Bilestoad
came out. Your assumption that piracy was a major cause is probably
wrong, but untestable, and therefore, not a meaningfull argument. The
lost profits argument -assumes- that everyone who pirates a program could
afford to buy is (no lost profits otherwise). I suspect that most of the
time, this is not the case. And I suspect that the claimed lost profits
exceed the expendable cash of the American public by an order of magnitude.
Note, I am not defending piracy, but I am attacking the lost profits
argument.

None of which has any bearing on the fact that the PUBLISHER screwed the
programs authur, they did not pay for the copies that they sold. Or do you
call this piracy also?
 
>>You have changed the subject, and deleted the text that would make this
>>clear. And why is your 20,000 copy -guess- any better than the hundred
>>billion dollar losses claimed by the software industry? They have a vested
>>interest in making the number as high as possible, and I do not trust
>>their numbers. Now if you actually went out and counted them...
>
>Did I count them?  No.  I did however, attend numerous summer computer
>camps, and virtually everyone I met either had a copy of The Bilestoad
>with them or had friends who had a pirated copy of it.  The pirated
>version I had had an incredibly quick load to it, whereas other pirated
>versions had a different loading mechanism.
>
>Even the people I talk to at school who had Apple II's said that had a
>pirated version of The Bilestoad.  If this is an accurate sample of the
>status of The Bilestoad, and I believe it is, I don't think its
>unreasonable to assume that there was an incredible number of copies
>made.  

The problems start when "an incredible number" -becomes- a number, and
the number is used as a fact, and a basis for huge lost profits.
 
>>>>As for the maps, unless they were published in the manual (which I rather
>>>>doubt), then they are the creations of whomever compiled them, and they
>>>>do have the right to post them. What good are the maps without the game?
>>>
>>>I got all the way to the uncharted islands without the maps...
>
>>This says nothing about the value/problem of maps. Do you want to be
>>congratulated or what? Again you deleted the text whixh I was responding to
>>which claimed that the maps should not have been posted.
>
>I had assumed that you wanted the maps for achieving higher islands in
>the game.  For that purpose, they really aren't needed.

You know, we are still talking about different things. Not just here,
but all through both posts. Probably the best thing to do is just to
drop the issue. Or post what you want, but not as a response to my post.

>-- 
>Eric E Johnson             | "For a successful technology, reality must

Rich

payner@netcom.com