🚀 go-pugleaf

Users don't like restrictive copy protection schemes, vendors don't
like piracy.

All in all, piracy is winning hands down, and the users are suffering
for it, whether they know it or not.  Prices for software are still
high because of piracy.

It might inconvenience you to not be able to copy and use software
on several machines, or at home. It's also inconvenient for you to
photocopy a book and bind it so you can have a copy at home and at work.
If you could make an identical copy of a book as easily as you can make
an identical copy of a piece of software, books would probably cost
$500 too.

Users are responsible for piracy, and users are the ones who suffer when
software is copy-protected.  Round and round we go.  The worst inequity
of the situation is that the honest users are the ones most often
confused or penalized by copy-protection schemes.

Adobe Systems, AutoDesk, Aldus, and others are starting to team up and
offer Anti-Piracy programs that basically reward you for turning in
someone for software piracy.  I see this as the fairest system of all,
because it penalizes the people who are causing the problem, rather
than having the baggage of a general system penalizing everybody.

Software piracy is a violation of copyright, which carries (I think) a
$50,000 penalty plus the possibility of jail sentences.  When people
start to pay fines and do time for software piracy, and honest people
who turn them in are rewarded for it, I think you'll finally see
software piracy drop off, and software prices will drop with it.  Maybe
not, but it seems like a fair approach to me.

It will be a good day for everyone, and we should all look forward to it
and do our part to help.  All software developers are users, too.

--
 Glenn Reid        		NeXTmail: glenn@rightbrain.com
 RightBrain Software		415-326-2974 (NeXTfax 326-2977)
 Palo Alto, California