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news.txt
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pirates.asc
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Text File
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1989-04-05
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4KB
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73 lines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED PIRATE ~
~ ~
~ by C. Rover ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 'software industry' is a Sargasso Sea of sharks and pirates,
all crying "stinking fish!" while they poach each other's ideas. How
many £25 games have you seen that are just a rehash of something that's
been done better before? How many utilities have you bought that don't
deliver what they promise? How many times have you paid over the odds
for the promise of 'technical support', only to find that the phone's
manned between three and four in the morning, and then only if the
month's got an 'r' in it? "We'll get right back to you on that one."
'Right back' meaning in a month's time, if you're very, very lucky.
Yes, it's the traditional cry of the pirate. The 'software
industry' has its own set of excuses and counter-arguments, but who
really cares - a plague on both their houses say I!
What's really interesting about the whole pirate/industry
controversy is what happens to all these programmes after they're
pirated. Do they really deprive the industry of revenue? I think that
it's time for a few home truths here. I've never cracked a programme
personally, but in the four years that I was involved in pirating I
copied virtually anything that wasn't bolted down. It didn't matter if
it was games, utilities, word processors or the latest DTP programme, it
was all grist to my mill. I had up to ten contacts on the go at any
time, and sent each of them eight discs every three weeks. That's a hell
of a lot of discs, even if you leave out the compressed discs with
several titles.
And what happened to all these discs? The whole point of swapping
is that you have to have the latest versions of everything. Not because
you need them, but to act as swapping fodder and convince your contacts
that you're someone worth staying with. Think about it. You're getting
in the region of eighty discs a month. Of those about 20% will be
duplicates, 10% will be bad copies, and probably another 20% will be old
programmes that no-one wants. That's still forty discs a month that have
to be added to your list, checked for viruses, labelled and filed away.
You soon realise that all your free time is taken up in checking discs,
answering letters, copying discs, and sending off packets.
In short, you never get around to using any of the software that you
copy. You're too tied up with keeping the goodies rolling between
contacts to have time for anything as simple as learning a programme.
And the same goes for everyone that you're swapping with. The
mentality's the same as a stamp collector who's got to have every set, in
every condition. You've got to have the sexiest programmes, in the
latest versions. You never do anything with them, but you've got the
best collection on the block.
And then there's the manuals. You can't learn a complex programme
without a manual, so you've got to spend more time tracking one down,
doing favours for the loan of it. And when you finally get it set up
there's another, but sexier programme that's arrived, and you start all
over again. Let's get this straight - the people who copy programmes
aren't the ones who'd go out and buy them, they're the dilettantes of the
computer world, forever looking for their next "Gee Whiz!" fix.
So, apart from the games side, isn't the whole pirating scare that
FAST are trying to lay on us something of a non-starter? No-one can
produce an accurate figure for what revenue, if any, is being lost, so
isn't all the screaming about something that might, or might not be
happening? At least I know what I'm writing about - it's from personal
experience.
~~~~~eof~~~~~