| From: | tim |
| Date: | 18 Aug 2000 at 18:47:12 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga Piracy |
Hi Gary
> There is a real dilemma today in how to deal with piracy. What makes open
> source so attractive is that they give away the software, so no cracking
> has to take place. However, manuals, support, etc are charged for thus
> providing revenue streams for developers and developmental companies.
Charging only for manual & support is viable only for certain markets.
Very few home users will pay for support for free software - it is the
large corporate customers that pay for support. That's fine, but it
does leave applications which don't appeal to corporate users as being
commercially uneconomic - even though they may have thousands of users.
The worse scenario for open source, is that it will always be ported to
the most common platforms very quickly (i.e. PCs) leaving other platforms
trailing. This makes it hard to attract users to alternative platforms.
>
> Methods such as serialization, system ID, user ID, key files, etc just do
> not work.
They do work, but not 100%. Nothing will work 100%.
A big problem with piracy of Amiga software in recent years has been that
the rate of release of upgrades of popular software has been slow. That
allows time for pirated versions to circulate throughout the Amiga
community. More frequent updates (say 4-6 monthly) won't stop piracy
completely, but limits the extent of the circulation of pirated copies.
While cracked version will appear on bulletin board within days of a release,
relatively few people actively seek out such pirate versions. The real
damage is done when copies pass from friend to friend - but that takes
time.
>
> Jail time for them would do some good, except many then view themselves as
> heros and martyrs which still doesn't solve the problem.
>
> Confiscation of equipment hurts them in the pocketbook and this may be a
> good way to handle individuals and groups using and providing cracked or
> pirated applications.
All well and good, but laws vary from country to country. Cross-border cases
are very expensive and difficult to prosecute.
Tim
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