925 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
925 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:40 Page 1
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Volume 2, Number 22 15 July 1985
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| / \ |
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| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
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| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
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| Users Group | | \ \\ |
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| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
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| ______ |__U__| / \// |
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| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
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| (jm) |
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
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Publisher: Fido 107/7
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Chief Procrastinator: Thom Henderson
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Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/7. You
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are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the
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file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 107/7.
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Disclaimer or don't-blame-us:
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them;
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everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
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received.
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:42 Page 2
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============================================================
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NEWS
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============================================================
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Mike Ringer
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Fido #437 in net #117
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Remeber the days when the only people we
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really had to worry about where the Apple
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pirates? Now we (the users of Fido) must
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be on The lookout for are own type pulling
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cute stunts! Starting about three issues
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back we had a message yelling help we've
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been robbed someone has taken a newly
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written program and put a a new name on it
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and called it "Public Domain". Another
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goodie is the idiot who wrote a program
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that does a "kill *.*". The only one that
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really makes me mad is the one that states
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"All Atari games such as Stargate, Robtron
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etc are pirated!" this made me a slight
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bit mad! Why? Because I got Stargate from
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my friend who got it from a board in
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Austin. Oh well It looks like we are all
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subjects of life. I would like to know
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what motivates these people that do this!
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Did a sysop make them mad? Did a company
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make them mad? I just wish they would
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keep their trash off of the public boards
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so America won't lose part of it's dream
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"Freedom". Starting now it's going to be
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alot harder to run a Fido or anything else
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unless you're already running a pirate
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board. Now on the subject of pirate boards
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I have called some of the local ae lines
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in my city and asked one pirate what he
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thought of Public Boards and said "I think
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there childish" This my friends comes from
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the sysop (so they call their selves) of
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two pirate boards and also a High school
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dropout. Who in this case is being
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childish? There is another pirate sysop in
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the local area whom I went to school with
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and he uses the public boards because he
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can't find a comm program he wants. He
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wants an Apple version of Modem7 I guess
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he can't find something pirated that works
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just as well! I don't think that public
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boards will ever be done away with or
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completely safe from computer rapscallion
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But the longer we stick together the
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better off we will be.
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:44 Page 3
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PROGRAMMING HINTS
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For all MSDOS/PCDOS systems
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I have always had the complaint that you could not goto
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another batch file and return where you left off in the
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first one. Well lo and behold while poking around on
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someone's computer the other day I found a file called
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BAT_NEST that gave the following hint. From the first batch
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file issue the commmand
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COMMAND /c batchfile
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this will open and process the batch file indicated. When
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it is done processing will continue at the next line after
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the COMMAND line in the first file. This can continue for 7
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levels of batch files. I've tried it as far as four levels
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and it works great.
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One word of caution, you remain logged on to the
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drive/directory where the origional batch file resides.
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FOR DEC RAINBOW SYSTEMS
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In an earlier article I described the process necessary to
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get COMMAND.COM to reside successfully in RAMDISk. Recently
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I purchased DOIT and had problems with installing it and
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dropping to another lever of COMMAND.COM. After removing
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the COMSPEC program from the AUTOEXEC.BAT everything works
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smoothly. Turns out DEC finally did a good deed and fixed
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the SET COMSPEC=?????????? command in 2.11 MSDOS. The
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system even seems to be a little faster in program to
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program switching. So anyone who has upgraded to 2.11 and
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uses COMMAND.COM from ramdisk I would recommend removing the
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COMSPEC program from the AUTOEXEC.BAT and from the system.
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Leave in the SET COMSPEC=?????.
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Mike Hamilton
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#102/666 and 102/370
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:48 Page 4
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From: Bob Hartman, Sysop 101/10101
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This is simply a request for information. I
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am simply wondering how many Fido Sysops would like a
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utility that emulated the Fido message system. This
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would be a standalone program separate from Fido (and
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hence much smaller), that could be used to peruse the
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different message bases, and reply to messages in any
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of them. I know that a program called READMSG exists,
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but that is really just a simple program that you can
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use once you change directories to the proper place,
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and you know what messages you are interested in, etc.
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What I am proposing is a Fido emulator.
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Currently I am working on such a beast (I sort
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of needed most of it to implement my link to USENET
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anyway). With a little bit more massaging for the case
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of the FidoNet message area, it will be complete. If you
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are interested in this program, send me a FidoNet message,
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and when it is complete I will send a copy to you to test.
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It is written using all DOS calls only, so it should run
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on any machine, but who knows...I only have an IBM PC, so
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someone else will have to let me know what happens on a
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Rainbow, or other system.
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Now for the logical conclusion to this article...
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Since I have written the message base section of Fido in
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C (MANX Aztec C-86 version 3.20c), is anyone interested in
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helping write the rest of Fido in C? Bob Briggs (the sysop
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from 15/464) was going to help me out, but he has to sell
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off his PC, and will no longer be a Fido node. I know that
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there are apparently versions of Fido that are written in
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Turbo Pascal, but the version that I am working on will be
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in C. Since MANX makes a line of compilers that covers
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almost all machines and operating systems, I am using them
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for the development. I have been assured that if it runs
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under one MANX compiler, and uses no system specific calls,
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then it will run under another MANX compiler. If this is
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so, then suddenly Fido can blossom to CPM systems, as well
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as other types of hardware. We shall see...
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Bob Hartman
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Sysop 101/10101
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:49 Page 5
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Life and times, of a PIRATE
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After reading views on piracy and copy protection, I
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couldn't help but get my two cents worth in. Being an
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experienced computer user of more than 8 years, and
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programmer who has been fortunate enough to have his ware's
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marketed. I feel I've enough experience to converse on this
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matter. Since I have purchased alot of software, and have
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also pirated alot of software. First, I have to say I have
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paid much money for software that isn't worth the media it's
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saved on. All these beautiful ads! and nice write ups really
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grab us, and shake us until the money falls out of our
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pockets. "I have to have it!" we murmur, while hoping the
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wife didn't over hear. Two weeks later, we rush the freshly
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packaged disk into our machines, just to find its utter
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trash.
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True we should check out what we buy, but those of us who
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live in the more rural parts of the country don't have the
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computer stores that stock all the latest software packages.
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Second, MOST software is WAY over priced. as someone said in
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a recent newsletter, "The price of a wordstar wouldn't buy
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his services for a day" let alone the months is takes to
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write a WORDSTAR. Well we're talking about more than one
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sale here. And 300.00 for Wordstar is quite ridiculous! I
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for one would NEVER pay such a price for software of ANY
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kind. (At least not for anything I've seen on the market)
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These software companies put these way out prices on this
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software because the large corporations don't blink an eye
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at spending several thousand on a handful of wordstar, or
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symphony packages. But us small business, and hobbiest's
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types flip at the thought. This is why "I PIRATE".
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I've heard quotes that we pirates would still pirate even if
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the price was right. Not at all true! I have just about
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every piece of software imaginable for my machine. Which I
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need since I spend hours at it, and I get bored with things
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easily and want to move on and see what else is new. When I
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get tired of a package, I toss it in the box, never to boot
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it again. (Imagine 300.00 a shot for this habit!) The reason
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I say its not true, is I was given a FREE copy of Borland's
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TURBO PASCAL. This I learned and toyed with for about 6
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months, before I found it to be a truly astounding piece of
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work. With the disk already in use, I ordered from Borland,
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an "ORIGINAL" (perish the though!). And found the 39.95 tag
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to be VARY FAIR! Even the 3.0 version with its 69.95 price
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tag.
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Another good example is, I had read and seen ads for the
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newly released "GEM" operating system by digitial research.
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I've pirated their stuff before, I have Concurrent PC-DOS,
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that I was impressed with, and ALMOST BOUGHT after seeing it
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demo'ed, I wanted it, but the 395.00 just couldn't be
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justified. (If it was 89.95 Digitial Research would have
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made the sale!) I finally found a freebee, played with for
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:52 Page 6
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about 2 weeks, until I found its many short comings, (thank
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god I didn't pay it's 300.00+ price tag! ) Then tossed it
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too in the bone pile, and haven't booted it since. But GEM
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was another story! A fellow pirate called and said he just
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got a good chunk of the entire GEM package, which included
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the GEM OS, the GEM PAINT, WRITE, copies of the doc etc. I
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asked him to ship it out to me. Later the next day, I
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stopped into the computer store, and low and behold they had
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GEM too! I watched a brief demo, and asked the price. (ready
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to hear the typical $$$) But no! $49.95 the salesman said!
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Even though I KNEW I had it coming any day in the mail, I
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BOUGHT the package because it was their when i wanted it, I
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thought it looked like fun, and I'd rather have the more
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colorful, original, documentation. This fair pricing was for
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the OS ONLY! after seeing that the supporting PAINT, WRITE,
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and others were near 200.00 each, I declined on those!
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(again if they were 49.00 each I'd have taken one of each
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without hesitation) I waited and received them in the mail
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for free. But Digital, again, LOST THE SALE!
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Games too are over priced. Another example, I pirate every
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game I can find, since none have held my attention for over
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a couple hours. And I`m not about to pay 39.00 for 2 hours
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worth of fun. Until a store was going out of business! They
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offered my AtariSoft games, at 9.95 each! and I bought
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THREE! (the only 3 I didn't already have) Oh there was one
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exception. The MS flight simulator! Even though I already
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owned a pirated copy, I did order one mail order for 29.00.
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This was because it is worth the price, as is Sub Logics
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flight simulator called "JET" which is due out any day. I
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have already placed an order for, since I've seen it at a
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recent computer show.
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So If I was a software company I would do what I could to
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cut costs, and lower prices, and above all DUMP THE
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PROTECTION! It doesn't hinder piracy at all, we still copy
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everything we want, and crack the rest. But it would be
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nice to buy ZAXXON at 14.95 already in file form for hard
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disk storage, rather than having to break it down myself.
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True not all piracy would be stopped, Kids would still run
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around trading games, but the piracy what would continue
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would be software that the pirates would not purchase
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normally anyway! Even freeware can be over priced, I've seen
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requests for 50.00+ for something that's not worth a dime,
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although the idea is promising. But I can honestly say I
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have only paid for one piece of freeware... John Friels
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QMODEM! He's asked 10.00 (for the 1st version) which was
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refreshing, since I would have paid up to 79.95 for it.
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A good example of pricing again... I read about Borlands
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SIDEKICK when it was new, I was hot for it! I found it at
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the store, but they only had the "UNPROTECTED VERSION" which
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for some reason was double the price of the protected
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version. ( QUITE UNFAIR! even for Borland) Well I wasn't
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about to pay 89.00 for a program that sells for 49.00 with
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protection! And since the store didn't stock the protected
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49.95 version (I couldn't get it to crack it) AGAIN This
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:55 Page 7
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time, Borland would have made the sale!) But they had to be
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greedy and charge us more, just so we could use it from our
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hard drives. As it turned out, I got a pirated copy, played
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with it for a week, then tossed it in the bone pile, never
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to be booted again.
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So in closing, you can all voice your opinions on whats in
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the mind of a software pirate, but the above insight is
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coming from a pirate, which is not the thoughts of one, but
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of 99 percent of the software traders that I deal with. You
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can say what you want but...
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PIRACY IS DUE TO SOFTWARE OVER PRICING!
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Thank you for letting me set the record straight
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:00:56 Page 8
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USERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO
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Sparky
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Radio Free FIDO 123/5
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Having been a sysop myself a few years ago, I can
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understand how a sysop may feel. Users will EXPECT that his
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board is up and running. They will EXPECT that they can
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download everything and contribute nothing, if they so wish.
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They EXPECT that they have the right to drop carrier in the
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middle of their session, or tie the board up for hours.
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As I said, users EXPECT. Maybe I'd better add the
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word SOME in front of the word "users". Infact, a great many
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users express a great desire to not only use the board but to
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help it grow. I say more power to them.
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Now, back to being a sysop. If I wish to dedicate my
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computer, phone line and personal time to run a board, then I
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should be able to DICTATE what is permitted on my board. After
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all, I'm the guy paying the bills to run this contraption.
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It's MY hobby! If I don't want you to post the latest patches
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to break Symphony's copy protection, that's my business, not
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yours.
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So it's pretty much agreed and understood that a sysop
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can do whatever he or she pretty damn well pleases. On their
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board. Anytime they want. And no explanations needed, thank
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you very much.
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However, don't users have a FEW rights too? A user
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doesn't have many rights on a local BBS; we've agreed he is at
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the mercy of the sysop. But, let's consider for a moment what
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would happen if a BBS was also a local host system for FIDONET.
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Does this sysop have the right to censor any private FIDONET
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messages?
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Let's give an example. I am a sysop of a FIDO that
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happens to also be the local host system for my area. All
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FIDOMAIL passes through my board. Now, I also have strict
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rules that govern my BBS. I own a computer store, and will not
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allow any messages to be posted that would directly compete
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with services my store provides. So far, so good. I'm within
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my rights as a sysop to censor all messages for this material.
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After all, I'm not going to help my competition.
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Now, here comes the problem (you knew there had to be
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a problem, Life's just a bowl of cereal). A friend of a user
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sends FIDOMAIL from his node in New York state telling his
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friend of an exceptional hard disk drive deal. 10 megabytes for
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$250.00 complete! So, he sends his friend FIDOMAIL and pays
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his money to do so. Money is deducted from his account, and
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all is well.
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That is, until that message hits my BBS. This message
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competes with my business. So, therefore, I will delete it.
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:03 Page 9
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It will not be passed through my system, since I too sell hard
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disk upgrade kits. I'd be shooting myself in the foot. I
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delete the message, and no one knows anything.
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The question here is, doesn't the user expect to have
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the right to receive FIDOMAIL? Isn't this particular sysop
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imposing HIS set of rules upon the entire local FIDO community,
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since he is a local host system? Doesn't the first amendment
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operate in this case?
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To make a similar example; I am a Shiite working as a
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mailman for the Postal Service. Do I have the right to deny
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mail delivery to a Christian based on my religious beliefs? Of
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course not!
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But what about this sysop? Does he have the right to
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censor FIDOMAIL, even if it's a private message?
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My own thoughts say that the sysop has NO right to
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censor FIDOMAIL. If he has problems with any potential message
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being routed through his system, other than those that promote
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illegal activity, he shouldn't volunteer to be a host system.
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Let some other board handle the duties, or remain outside of
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FIDONET altogether.
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Radio Free FIDO was founded on a belief that it is the
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users who make the board, and it's up to us to continue to keep
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it's quality high. We've formed a FIDO Users Group (FUG).
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We're all a bunch of Fuggers. The sysop guides the board, and
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lends a hand when needed. We're fortunate to have such a
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sponsor. I can't help but feel the boiling blood of my
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revolutionary ancestors when the word "censor" is spoken.
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Thoughts?
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To sum up my position, I appeal to anyone who cannot
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allow free flow of FIDOMAIL traffic through his system to NOT
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consider becoming a host system. To do so would go against the
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grain of the FIDONET community, and prostitute the dream of Tom
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Jennings. LONG LIVE FIDONET.
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Sparky
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Radio Free FIDO 123/5
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:06 Page 10
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============================================================
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COLUMNS
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============================================================
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Thom Henderson
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SEAboard, Fido 107/7
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Gnawing the Bone
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Mind if I talk a bit more about software piracy? Thank you.
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We have an article this week about piracy, as seen from the
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pirate's point of view. I appreciate his viewpoint, and I'm
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glad he wrote to tell us how he feels. I'd just like to say
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a few things about how it looks from my side of the fence.
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First of all, let's explode a myth. Copy protection doesn't
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add all that much to the cost of making software. The
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outfit that does our disk duplication adds copy protection
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for a very modest fee. Of course, you can go out and lay
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down a bundle for Prolok if you want, but it's your own
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fault if you do. Copy protection is software, just like any
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other. It doesn't cost anything to add a few lines of code
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to a program, and it doesn't cost much to add a key to a
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disk.
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So what does cost? Well, disks don't grow on trees, for one
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thing. And it does cost a bit for disk duplication (you can
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spend an afternoon making 200 copies on your PC if you want,
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but I won't). You also need a manual, or nobody will be
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able to use your product. This can get very expensive if
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you want professional typesetting, but let's assume that you
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are willing to settle for a cruder, "home-grown" look, so
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you'll run it off on your printer and call it "camera
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ready".
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Then of course you'll need some sort of packeging. Silk
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screened binders and printed boxes are expensive, so let's
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settle for the ubiquitous vinyl folder (now you know why
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it's so common).
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Don't forget that all this doesn't come prepackaged. What
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you'll get is a box of folders, a box of disks, and a stack
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of manuals. Be prepared to spend a couple of afternoons
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putting it all together.
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By now you've already spent a fair chunk of cash out of your
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own pocket. (Don't forget that, for a professional
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offering, you should expect to spend ten times as long on
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debugging, polishing things up, putting in on-line help, and
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so forth. Once you've sent the master disk out for
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duplication it is too late to fix any bugs.) Assuming you
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were putting together a run of a hundred, with all the
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software fitting on one disk and with a modest manual,
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you've probably spent on the order of three or four hundred
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bucks. You may think that your troubles are over. Hardly!
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:08 Page 11
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What you've bought for your money is a stack of packages
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piled on your kitchen table. Now you've got to get someone
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to buy them. You could take out ads in a few of the trade
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journals, but be prepared to spend upwards of $50,000 doing
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it for a month. You can mail out review copies to all the
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magazines, but they get hundreds of packages a month and
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will probably never even open yours. You might get someone
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else to distribute it for you, but that's hard to do if you
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don't have a proven track record for marketable software
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(the old chicken-and-egg problem). You can probably find a
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few local software stores who are willing to carry it on
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consignment, but don't expect to sell more than a half dozen
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copies that way.
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So you are now in the realm of MARKETING, and that takes big
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bucks. So you mortgage the house, the car, the wife and
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kids, and spend it all on advertising in the whistful hope
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that your package will catch on and be a success. Or
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perhaps you go find some venture capital, hire a marketing
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consultant, and lose control over your own product.
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Is this dream of being a major software company overnight
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starting to tarnish a bit? Wait, it gets worse!
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So say you "over" price your product at $100. If your
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initial run sells out completely you will gross ten grand,
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which is not enough to cover your advertising costs, not to
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mention paying the mortgage and putting food on the table
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while you pursue your dream.
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I'm told that a "hot" product sells ten thousand copies in
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this business. Granted, Lotus and Borland both do better,
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but not much of anybody else. A more reasonable figure for
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a typical package is probably under a thousand, but let's
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think big. Ten thousand copies at a "reasonable" cost of
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thirty bucks a piece comes out to $300,000. Looks like a
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lot of money, doesn't it? Now figure you spent, oh, half
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that much on marketing costs. Another thirty grand goes to
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physical costs (disks, jackets, manuals; we'll ignore the
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high school kids you hired to help put it all together).
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Unexpected costs (there are ALWAYS unexpected costs) will
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take a big chunk, but let's call it twenty grand to make the
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numbers simpler. Your net is then $100,000. Uncle Sam will
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gladly help himself to half of that, leaving you with
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$50,000 for yourself.
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Now consider that this is only true if your product is a
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bona-fide winner. If it falls flat on its face (which it
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easily could, through no fault of your own), then you are
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out a couple of hundred grand, and get nothing.
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It's a gamble, no two ways about it. You put everything on
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the line in the slim hope that you'll come up with a winner.
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I've been writing and selling software for a long time now.
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I do this stuff for a living. I, too, have the dream of
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:10 Page 12
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coming up with a winner, something that everyone will want
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and use. Now people are coming along and telling me that I
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charge too much, that I should shoot the works and gamble
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everything I own for peanuts. Nuts is right! Why should I
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take that risk if the payoff isn't worth it?
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:10 Page 13
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============================================================
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FOR SALE
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============================================================
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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G R A P H I C S B O A R D O P T I O N
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A N D G S X - 8 6 S O F T W A R E
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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I have one dozen PC-1XX-BA graphics
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options for the DEC Rainbow available
|
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at up to +25% off. These are brand new,
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in unopened boxes. Pricing:
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DECUS MEMBERS: OPTION- $335.00
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TAX (Cal only) 20.10
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SHIPPED FED. EX. 15.00
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-------
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TOTAL $370.10
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OTHERS: OPTION- $350.00
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TAX (CA. only) 21.00
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SHIPPED FED. EX. 15.00
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-------
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$386.00
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Cashiers checks or Money orders may be
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sent to Advanced Software Applications
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5258 Vickie Drive
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San Diego, Ca 92109
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(619) 488-5258
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Decus members must include your member-
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ship number. Orders will be taken on a
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first come first served basis and will
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be shipped the week of 29 July 85.
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FIDONEWS -- 15 Jul 85 00:01:12 Page 14
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============================================================
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NOTICES
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============================================================
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The Interrupt Stack
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27 Nov 1985
|
|
Halley's Comet passes closest to Earth before perihelion.
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24 Jan 1986
|
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Voyager 2 passes Uranus.
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9 Feb 1986
|
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Halley's Comet reaches perihelion.
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11 Apr 1986
|
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Halley's Comet reaches perigee.
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24 Aug 1989
|
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Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
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If you have something which you would like to see on this
|
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calendar, please send a message to Fido 107/7.
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