🚀 go-pugleaf

knudsen%ihades.UUCP.UUCP%ATT.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
>...
>After 10 years of living in the Coco world, my impressions are:
>--There was plenty of Coco SW piracy back in the pre-OS9 days,
>  but no more than any of the other 8-bit machines.

ROM packs made things a little harder to break...

>--PClone/MSDOG world still runs on the credo "Only fools BUY software."

That's my philosophy towards dos crap....

>--OS-9 world was surprisingly free of piracy.  Thank heavens,
>  since there was no way to copy-protect anything under it that I
>  ever heard about.  I'd guess the improved attitude stemmed from
>  so many OS9ers being or hoping to be software authors.  I know
>  MY attitude tightened up a lot as UME neared completion!

OS-9 is like UNIX... you get something that YOU are responsible for.  If it
turns up elsewhere, YOU are responsible!  Plus, we all know how easy it is
to break most copy protection effects.  I cracked the VIP library's "protection"
scheme in about ten minutes with its own disk editor--of course being able
to disassemble 6809 ASM on sight helps :-)  Stuff is just d*mn easy to copy.
There are no "constants" to play with.  I have toyed with writing information
to the RAM in the clock on the MM/1 for copy protection.  But that can
be defeated REAL quick.  Further, the serial number in the kernel could be
used and then hacked.

It just boils down to one simple factiod:
OS-9/OSK users are much more honest.  We know how hard it is to protect soft-
ware, as well as to defeat that protection.

{can we talk about copy-protection now :-)}

>--Based on the first and last stmts above, I get offended when
>  anyone singles out the Coco community as a bunch of pirates.
   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>Ed Hathaway started selling SW (Second City) about 1987, around a
>year before we brought out UME.  In all that time up to now, he
>reported 1--3 incidents of "customers" calling with technical
>questions on programs (not UME) that they hadn't bought.  Ed just
>kept a record of names and addresses, not serial numbers.  If your
>name wasn't on his list, he'd say "What's your name & no, I'll
>call you back."  Usually this got a CLICK!  Oncer some dope even

If you have a boot-leg copy, I sure as h*ll would not ask those who wrote it
without cleverly wording what i was asking... like saying you are trying
it on some else's system/etc.

>gave him that info, whereupon Ed offered to sell him a fresh copy
>right on the spot and he'd drop the matter.  Instant sale.

Extortion? Buy it now, or we call Big Brother! <grin>

>Tech support and free/cheap upgrades help a lot to combat piracy.

Cheap software too...

>These were lacking in the early days of home computing, and rarely
>apply to games, so the whole picture makes sense.

For games, it is a "game" to try and crack the thing.

[I'll admit it... I have hacked Mac MS Exel (2 or 3???) so it doesn't have a
serial number or copyright message or owner... They did a good job of hiding
stuff and encoding, but it just took longer.  Mac MS Word was no work at
all... it's not encoded... in version 3 or so anyway.]

[To clarify, I did this to UNIVERSITY COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE... legally
licensed copies to distort for fun and amusment... I change the opening
banner regularly :-)]

--cramer

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= cramer@catt.ncsu.edu NCSU Computer and Technologies Theme Program =
= jfbeam@tx.ncsu.edu   NCSU College of Textiles                     =
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