Software protection scheme may boost new game sales (fwd)

[Tim May]

On Saturday, October 11, 2003, at 12:09  PM, Sunder wrote:

> Yawn...  This is no different than any of the copy protection schemes
> employed in the 1980's on then popular home computers such as the
> commodore 64.
>
> Hindsight is 20/20 and recalls, all of these were broken within weeks 
> if
> not months.  "Nibbler" copiers and other programs were quickly built 
> that
> allowed the breaking of all of these systems.  All sorts of "error"
> sectors, duplicate tracks, half tracks, extra tracks, extra sectors,
> non-standard sized sectors, tracks written at different speeds, 
> erroneous
> checksums, hidden data, and other sorts of weird bits were employed.  
> All
> were broken.  None survived the ages.
>
> In the end, the companies that employed copy protection only managed to
> piss off customers who lost their only copy of the software, and 
> created a
> market for the copiers and crackers.  The crackers won, the software
> companies lost.

In fact, the companies that made copying software got a lot of business 
(and hence stayed in business, funded more copying work, etc.) from 
_fully legal customers_ who wanted to ensure that they had backups of 
critical software. Everybody I knew had "Copyiipc" from Central Point 
Software in Portland, OR. They were not copying games, they were 
copying critical disks with their CAD, spreadsheed, accounting, and 
other business apps on them.

Yeah, sometimes these people gave copies to friends. Who often bought 
the program if their businesses would benefit (manuals, support, 
updates, etc.). But the main reason was for ensurance (not a word, but 
it fits with ensure vs. insure).

>
> Few of the companies of that era are still in business today.  CEO's,
> Vulture Capitalists, and others who have an interest in such schemes 
> would
> do well to invest some time in learning about that time, and the 
> results,
> for their investments, and dollars will go the same way... the way of 
> the
> brontosaurus, the trilobite, and the dodo.

As the saying goes, the lessons of the past are learned anew by each 
generation...


--Tim May