🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <103@ems.UUCP>, mark@ems.UUCP (Mark H. Colburn) writes:
> Let's face it folks, there is not a protection
> scheme for software that can  be written that cannot be broken.
>  ...
> Copy protection is just like the locks on your car. 
First of all, will all you hackers Please take the money you
are saving by violating copyright protection, and buy an on-line
spelling checker!  Thanks.

This takes me back to PC ages "B.I." (before IBM), the standing
"rite of passage" for entry into the inner sanctum of your local
computer club was to successfully violate the protection scheme
for Visicalc (TM).  Where is Visicalc now?  Wiped out by competi-
tors with larger advertising budgets, and more willing to pro-
tect their rights via draconian measures.  In a word, Visicalc
was bled to death and never regained enough capital to push
forward on their considerable technological lead.

On a more personal note, the copy protection scheme was clever
for its day.  The one I broke used absolute addressing, a 
ROM timing loop and several sectors of the code placed on a
portion of the disk, unmarked in the FAT to protect it.  After
breaking it, I decided that my time was too valuable to my 
employer--besides I am a Systems Engineer, not a hacker.  I 
appreciate the education the experience gave me, but decided
that these people needed their revenue; and I and my employer
needed my creative juices applied to genuine revenue
generating efforts.

Oh, for the good old days.
-- 
    -----                   Terry Sterkel
  -====----            AT&T Bell Laboratories
  ---------    {harvard|allegra|ulysses|ihnp4}!whuts!tes
    -----         [opinions are obviously only my own]