From: hilton@fcs260c.ncifcrf.gov (Bruce Hilton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: Ways to Foil Piracy
Date: 5 Oct 92 16:01:24 GMT
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <718040294.5749.0@aldebaran.weh.andrew.cmu.edu> ri09+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert W. Igo) writes:
>In message <1992Oct1.190254.2604@cs.yale.edu>, 
> randall-joshua@CS.YALE.EDU (Joshua Randall) writes:
>>Look...my friends...you think that "pirates" are going to be stopped by CD-ROM
>>games?  No.  Just because you cannot write to the CD does not mean that you
>>cannot crack the game.  If they (the "pirates") have to they will write a 
>>small TSR which will bypass whatever kind of protection is on the game.
>>
>>You want to foil piracy?  Don't put copy protection on games (a waste for
>>everyone involved).  Just make CD-ROM *only* games which cannot be installed
>>to hard drive.  This will foil illegal copying of games (at least until some-
>>one gets a CD copier).
>>-- 
>>Joshua E. Randall			randall-joshua@minerva.cis.yale.edu
>
>Yes, that would work for a while.  In the meantime, the software industry
>would be losing tons of money due to the fact that they just alienated
>most of the population who used to buy their disk-based stuff.  Also,
>someone would be working on a way to make everything run off a huge
>hard drive, and someone will be putting the finishing touches on
>writable CD's.  Of course, there will probably be people who come up
>with a form of copy protection for CD's, but that'll be bypassed just
>like it can be on videos.
>
>It never ends.  Why not leave it as it is, and save all the time and
>money trying to stop very clever people from doing very clever things?
>With each new form of copy protection, the hackers just keep getting
>better, and I think the hackers are definitely winning the race.
>

I bet that buglary will never end either.  Hence, there is no point to
locking my doors.  The pros will get in fast anyway, right?  Perhaps I 
can really stop buglary by putting an invitation on my (open) door?

What one strives for is a reasonable compromise. I refuse to turn my house
into a fortress because I wouldn't like living there - but I'm not going to
make it easy either.  The game manufacturers should do likewise. Funny of me,
but I never minded looking up page 102 in a manual occasionally for a good game
( such as civ or KQx ).  And I DO mind pirates - because they raise the prices
of the games precisely the same way shop lifters do. (The flames from that
remark are already coming back at me!).

And this try before you buy idea... well, I guess I should steal my next car
and try it out for six months or so first, right?  Is it not true that one
can watch our friend play it and get their opinion? Read the News, the trade
magazines which abound with reviews, and if the game is really bad, we can
TAKE IT BACK - to the manufacturer if necessary?  There is lot one can before
turning pirate, no?

But you are correct that we will always be exposed to pirate copies of 
whatever.  The choice of what to do will always be personal, not technical.


>[******************************** Bob Igo ********************************]
>Witty and universally-true .sig file under construction.
>[************************** ri09+@andrew.cmu.edu *************************]


-- 
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+      Bruce D. Hilton		     +
+      hilton@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov    +
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