Novell & Microsoft Settle Largest BBS Piracy Case Ever
I saw this in a news summary today and thought that it might be of interest to the list. Sorry, but this is all of the article that I have.
From PR Newswire:
"Microsoft Corporation and Novell, Inc. Jointly announced today they have reached a settlement with Scott W. Morris, who was doing business as the Assassins Guild Bulletin Board Service, in what is belived to be the largest settlement ever..." -- Gary Edstrom <gbe@primenet.com> | Sequoia Software PO Box 9573 | Programming & Technical Services Glendale CA 91226-0573 | PGP Key ID: 0x1A0D44BD PGP Fingerprint: 72 AA 4F 73 05 53 89 C6 8A EE F4 EE D1 C0 13 8D
Gary Edstrom writes:
I saw this in a news summary today and thought that it might be of interest to the list. Sorry, but this is all of the article that I have.
Repeat after me: This is not software piracy punks. This is CYPHERpunks. We talk about cryptography and its implications on society. Software piracy isn't a topic around here. Perry
On Mon, 15 Jan 1996, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Gary Edstrom writes:
I saw this in a news summary today and thought that it might be of interest to the list. Sorry, but this is all of the article that I have.
Repeat after me:
This is not software piracy punks. This is CYPHERpunks. We talk about cryptography and its implications on society. Software piracy isn't a topic around here.
Except, of course, if truly anonymous transactions were easily available now, the people wouldn't have gotten caught AND could have made a bundle in the process... End of goverments = decline (but not end) of software markets? Jon Lasser ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jon Lasser <jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu> (410)494-3072 Visit my home page at http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/ You have a friend at the NSA: Big Brother is watching. Finger for PGP key.
jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu (Jon Lasser) wrote:
End of goverments = decline (but not end) of software markets?
It's already happening anyway. In a few years (if not today) Microsoft is going to be hard pressed to come up with excuses why someone should pay $90 for Doze-95 when they can get a Linux CDROM for less than $20 (or ftp it for free). With WINE and DOSEMU, that Linux system will run most of the same software too. Willows software recently released their own windoze emulator for Linux for practically nothing (there is a small fee for commercial use, free otherwise). Look at Netscape, giving away their browser for free and how Microsoft finally gave in and did the same because they couldn't sell theirs. Selling software is going to become practically impossible within a few years, and prosecuting piracy will become even more fruitless. Rather, more and more companies will give the software away for free, and sell their expertise. Sure, they will still package it nicely in a box to sell it to corporate types who are afraid of ftp, but what they're really selling is not the software but the tech support number. Anyone can get more software than they will ever use from the various ftp sites. Mr. Corporate Executive doesn't want to waste his time checking out the latest offerings on the net, but he will pay to have a reliable program delivered to him that can be installed easily, by a company that will be happy to answer his questions about it. Companies like Red Hat and Walnut Creek are doing brisk business selling cdroms full of software that you can get for free. You can search the net for interesting stuff for months on end, or you can get all the best stuff on one disk from them for twenty bucks. And look at Sun Microsystems - they're giving away all their software for free. But when someone wants a reliable network server, who are they going to call? Sun. Software doesn't sell, but expertise does, and giving away well-written software is an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise to a large audience. The concept of copyright is pretty much dead; the free market has invented new solutions.
On Tue, 16 Jan 1996, Anonymous wrote:
jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu (Jon Lasser) wrote:
End of goverments = decline (but not end) of software markets?
It's already happening anyway. In a few years (if not today) Microsoft is going to be hard pressed to come up with excuses why someone should pay $90 for Doze-95 when they can get a Linux CDROM for less than $20 (or ftp it for free). With WINE and DOSEMU, that Linux system will run most of the same software too. Willows software recently released their own windoze emulator for Linux for practically nothing (there is a small fee for commercial use, free otherwise).
Hogwash. WINE isn't nearly finished, and DOSEMU won't run a lot. They certainly won't run the newer 32-bit applications that MS wrote to require DDE and other stuff.
Look at Netscape, giving away their browser for free and how Microsoft finally gave in and did the same because they couldn't sell theirs.
Netscape does not give away its browser for free, or at least they don't intend to. You're supposed to pay for it if you use it for anything other than educational or non-profit org use (not non-commercial use -- for personal non-commercial use, you're supposed to pay). Of course this isn't very tightly enforced.
Selling software is going to become practically impossible within a few years, and prosecuting piracy will become even more fruitless. Rather, more and more companies will give the software away for free, and sell their expertise.
Sure, they will still package it nicely in a box to sell it to corporate types who are afraid of ftp, but what they're really selling is not the software but the tech support number.
Have you ever tried tech support? Microsoft has never offered toll-free tech support as a matter of policy. You get a limited amount of support via a toll call to Redmond. Other companies are only a little better. People still buy software, and a lot of it.
Companies like Red Hat and Walnut Creek are doing brisk business selling cdroms full of software that you can get for free. You can search the net for interesting stuff for months on end, or you can get all the best stuff on one disk from them for twenty bucks.
And look at Sun Microsystems - they're giving away all their software for free. But when someone wants a reliable network server, who are they going to call? Sun. Software doesn't sell, but expertise does, and giving away well-written software is an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise to a large audience.
The concept of copyright is pretty much dead; the free market has invented new solutions.
I agree that copyright is dying, or should die, but I am not convinced that we have a solution. -rich
participants (5)
-
gbe＠primenet.com -
Jon Lasser -
nobody＠alpha.c2.org -
Perry E. Metzger -
Rich Graves