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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
- Path: sparky!uunet!centerline!noc.near.net!news.cs.brandeis.edu!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!goodman
- From: goodman@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Marc Goodman)
- Subject: Re: Bilestoad
- Message-ID: <goodman.711845868@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
- Sender: news@news.cs.brandeis.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Brandeis University
- References: <1992Jul21.155734.9934@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu> <h5dmpaj.payner@netcom.com> <1992Jul21.215710.12912@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu> <6vfmmzb.payner@netcom.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:57:48 GMT
- Lines: 58
-
- payner@netcom.com (Rich Payne) writes:
- >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.
-
- Datamost was in financial trouble by 1984. My contract with them was
- signed on December 28th, 1982. At that point the claimed to be
- getting out of the software business, because they couldn't make a go
- of it (in spite of programs like Aztec and The Bilestoad).
-
- The Bilestoad was voted one of the most popular games in 1983, in
- spite of the fact that both previous games I wrote sold about four
- times as many copies. This was IN SPITE OF the fact that by 1982 a
- significantly larger customer base existed, since many more apples
- were out in 1983-1984 than in 1980, when the first game was published.
- This, coupled with the fact that MANY people have told me that there
- were large numbers of pirated copies indicates that piracy WAS A
- SIGNIFICANT FACTOR in reducing my income. Since I dropped out of the
- market because I couldn't earn enough in it, we may therefore infer
- that piracy was a contributing factor to me dropping out of the
- market.
-
- >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.
-
- No, it doesn't assume that everyone who pirates a program would have
- bought it. It assumes that SOME SIGNIFICANT FRACTION of the people
- who pirated the program would have bought it if they COULDN'T GET IT
- FOR FREE. Given the sales on the first two games I wrote, I certainly
- believe this to be the case. If The Bilestoad had sold as many copies
- as SpaceWarrior or Planetoids (and the very fact that you've probably
- never heard of either of those would seem to indicate that it SHOULD
- HAVE), then I could have at least paid off my mastercard and recouped
- my investment of time in developing the game.
-
- >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?
-
- Cute rhetorical point, but I'm afraid it fails on the facts. Softdisk
- did not begin publication until 1986 or thereabouts, long after the
- rights reverted back to me and also after ``normal'' sales of the game
- had ceased. Datamost did default on $4000 in royalties, but even if
- they had paid those, it STILL wouldn't have been as much money as the
- previous games, nor enough to recoup the six months I spent developing
- the game in the first place.
-
- >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.
-
- Well, now that you know the facts, I can't imagine that you'd want to
- belabour your point any longer.
-