Executing Encrypted Code

Bill Frantz frantz at netcom.com
Fri Dec 20 13:46:38 PST 1996


At 11:52 AM -0800 12/20/96, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
>At 9:42 AM 12/20/1996, Bill Frantz wrote:
>> I meant processor backup of course.  When my processor breaks at 2AM and I
>> need to get the report out by 8AM, I'm going to call the software support
>> line and get help.
>
>If your processor dies you are SOL whether or not you have software.

I have 3 Macs in the house.  The places I work have rooms full of machines.


>If it's worthwhile having a backup processor around, then you just have
>to spend a little more to have backup software, too.

I thought your model was cheap processors and expensive software.  I.e.,.
The cost of the software is greater than the cost of the hardware.  Sounds
like more than just "a little more".


>If the old copy protection just worked, it would have been widely accepted.

Again, there is a complex infrastructure which offers the customer no
obvious benefit.  I disagree that copy protection would have been widely
accepted, even had it worked smoothly.  In fact, this scheme can be
characterized as a scheme to make copy protection work.

(Slightly tangentially, when my wife was in China at the Women's Conference
NGO meeting, someone walked off with a collection of copy protection
dongles as souvenirs.  The people who wanted to use the software were SOL.)


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