🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18626@mindlink.bc.ca> Richard_Robb@mindlink.bc.ca (Richard Robb) writes:
>But: aren't you worried that the virii are usually spread by piratii?

Where on earth did you get your stat?  Viruses (virii???) aren't spread
on BBSs nearly as much a people think.  Why?  Because BBS's take precautions!
Example:  there's a PD board here in town that scans every contribution for
viruses not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES with THREE different virus
scanners (McAffe, Norton, and Central Point, I think).  I can't speak for
pirate boards, but I'm sure they take similar precautions.
Viruses get spread largely in public school labs, where there's little to no
supervision and adolescents who have a mission to vandalize.  Colleges (in
my experience) use some budget to get virus scanners for their machines
(Virex is commonplace on the Mac), so they're not as vulnerable.  The
_ONLY_ virus I've ever seen (Stoned 2, ancient, truly ancient) was on my
mother's computer, and she got it from the school she worked at.  Nuf said.

Back to the piracy issue.  With the 30-day-no-questions-asked-return
policies of some places, there's no real argument for "sampling" software
before you buy it (unless it's shareware, that is).  Even if they _DO_
want a reason, tell them "it doesn't work on my machine" or even better
"this product is a piece of garbage and I don't want it."  They won't
argue too much...
The down side of returns is that companies re-sell the stuff.  The first
DR DOS that I bought didn't have disks in the package because it was
re-shrunk.  Needless to say, they replaced it.

Cracking, on the other hand, should be encouraged.  Maybe, just maybe, if
companies see the futility of putting copy protection of their products
they'll stop.  PC Magazine steadfastly refuses to give "Editor's Choice"
to software that's copy protected, so I'm not alone in my hatred of
the protectionist nazis.

I'll shut up now,
  Jim
-- 
----- knepley@cs.colostate.edu --------------- Boycott Colorado -------------
 Jim "Ranseus" Knepley |  Avoid rectal-cranial inversion. 
 Programmer, magician, |  "Gun's don't kill people, it's those bullet things"   
 computer geek.        |