Piracy used to be the only way to get games in the amigas DayZ, but now.....

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2010, June 5 - 10:19am

Ex-prat

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Joined: 2010 Jun 5

Piracy used to be the only way to get games in the amigas DayZ, but now.....

Hello, I am an ex software and was one due to the necessity of such... I mean even the company that sold me my cbm machine way back when sold copied games. As such, I knew no better for a while being a little naive.... And a kid... Years of such passed and things didn't get any better... I hasd to go on my own to Amsterdam from deep south in holland by train (2/5 hours by train) and then look for hours if I at all wanted any new games by paying for them... Guess what was the easier solution back then?

I have learned since then and am now a published author of a thing or two.... Books actually... but weirdly enough you could kinda call such SOFTware being data based... As such authorship right became a lot more important and pressing even though the bst games I got where bought for as much as i could.
And an old pirate ideal (quartex) was, "If you like it buy it."
What do you all think about this issue?

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2010, June 5 - 11:03am

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

the company that sold me my cbm machine

cbm? Do you mean "Commodore Business Machines"? Im not too sure about this or the remainder of your post...
[...]

except perhaps for:

And an old pirate ideal (quartex) was, "If you like it buy it."
What do you all think about this issue?

The software from here is no longer being sold by anybody or any company (at least it shouldn't be). So "if you like it buy it", doesn't come into it. i.e; You can no longer buy it - because it has since become abandonware. Macintosh abandonware at that.

2010, June 5 - 2:48pm

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Well, good software with good documentation and good support always sold well, even in games. People could have the real thing for a few pounds / dollars, an dit was so good that it was worth the money. Dungeon Siege, Diablo & Diablo II, Myth II, Age of Empires, Myst, even Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare, all sold really well, because they are premium pieces of software.

Of course, there are just as many examplees of great software not selling well, but that had nothing to do with piracy, Caesar III, Ghost Recon were excellent games, had excellent demos (which is esentially why I bought them) but lacked the selling channels to get really big sales. Before broadband and even more so before internet (yes there was such a time) finding Mac software took an immense amount of effort and money outside of the US, even in big cities. I probably bought more software (and books) in trips to MacWorld Expos and the local Electronics Boutique stores 6000 miles away, than I did in the UK.

Worse than piracy, in my opinion, is poor software. I've bought so many really bad titles. Reviews were so-so and common opinion is that poor software doesn't sell and the companies eventually go out of business. Maybe, but I've still been fleeced for the full purchase price while the company execs have filled their pockets with all the revenue before passing the losses to creditors.

Currently in the news, the software developers and publishers do nothing to help their prevention of piracy by standing back and watching 99.8% of software in China being pirate.

2010, June 8 - 9:01am

amatecha

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Joined: 2010 Mar 10

Nah, I totally agree. That's always been my believe as a lifelong software pirate, too. If I like it, I'll buy it. This is why you constantly hear me on the forums "I have the real CD of that, let me know if you need anything like a disk image or CD scan". Or, the band KMFDM says in their album liner notes, "support your favorites!", that's exactly what I do.

Joe Williams from the Mac developer "Delta Tao" has a very interesting and relevant post on his company's stance on software piracy: http://deltatao.com/deltajoe/?p=464

I've seen his writeup quoted MANY times. It's a great little post in my opinion, and gives some insight into the mentality of pirating vs. buying.