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The Answer to Copy Protection
I've already spoken in defense of copy protection. I don't
like it, but I can see why they do it. The big question is,
what else can be done?
When radio was first invented it was envisioned as
"telephone without the wires". It was a neat idea. It
could be alot of fun for alot of people. It could even be
useful in certain cases. But there aren't too many ways it
can compete with the more usual sort of telephone.
Then David Sarnoff got a bright idea. He came up with
broadcasting. This is more revolutionary than it sounds.
His idea was to transmit entertainment, news, whatever
people wanted to listen to. All the expensive equipment
would be at his end, so anyone could listen even if they
didn't have much to spend.
The big thing is, he put in all the money and all the work,
and GAVE it away! Anybody who wanted to was more than
welcome to listen in. The trick, of course, is that he
figured out how to make money some other way.
FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:28 Page 2
I think that software marketing is in that kind of a
position today. People are still thinking of marketing
software in terms of the mainframe market, and it just isn't
working very well. It's just too easy to make pirate
copies, and there are simply too many small fish to go
after.
The traditional answer is copy protection, but nobody likes
it, and it doesn't even work. People seem able to figure
out how to bust copy protection schemes almost as fast as
they can be devised. Even the proposed "key" system isn't
an answer. How is a physical key any different from a key
sector on a disk?
The one original answer I have heard is the Freeware
approach. It has the virtue of being revolutionary, and it
solves many of the inherent problems of copy protection. By
taking the approach that "if you don't pay, then you would
have pirated it anyway, so take it!" it does manage to make
piracy impossible, but few people ever seem to get around to
paying at all.
What we need is for someone to have a flash of insight, and
figure out another way to make money by writing good
software. We need some means whereby the more people who
use a program the more money the author makes, but not by
charging for the software. Regretfully, I have not had that
sort of stroke of genius, and I tend to doubt I ever will.
I'd thought of advertising, but I can't quite handle the
image of a "Big Mac" ad popping up whenever I run my
compiler.
In closing, I will state publicly something I've said many
times in private:
"There is some solution to software piracy, and it isn't
copy protection."
FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:29 Page 3
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NEWS
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I am unhappy, is anyone else out there unhappy? I am talking
about the "improved" fido with nets/nodes/regions/hosts, etc.
I was under the impression that fido was running very smoothly
before the change (Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people
spent alot of time coordinating the whole shebang and for that
I am very thankful), But was the direction fido took the best?
I know that the number of nodes had to be expanded, but that
could have been done without the nets. (Currently there can
be over 32,000 nodes / net. Obviously that should be large
enough for quite a while). Too much work was being done by
fido 51 and I agree that it makes a lot of sense that
"geographical regions" be set up to assign new nodes.
One of the major problems with the newest version is that the
routing is included with the node list. That means that most
of the time, there will be at least 2 phone calls made to send
fido mail. The problems with this approach are:
1). The host is VERY! busy. It sometimes takes many days to
get through to the host.
2). There is NO way to know if the fidomail ever got through
to the destination
3). More phone calls are generated / evening which increases
the congestion.
For those (few?) people who send mail each evening to more
than 1 node served by a host, there is a savings using the
routing. I am sure that some of the busy nodes want the
routing, but some of us (most of us?) probably don't see the
savings.
It makes sense that the node list is sorted by region and this
should have been done in the past. Since I am going to assume
that most sysops have better editors than edlin, It should not
be a problem to put your "region" at the top so they are the
first ones displayed. For those of us who use fidomail often,
we probably remember the 2 or 3 nodes that we usually send
mail to.
Minor complaint; I find it easier to remember 1 number (even a
4 digit number which allows 10,000 nodes than a net/node
number combination. I am fido #208 and I would rather not
have another #208 even in a different region. Most people are
probably smarter than me so maybe this will not cause problems
for others.
I have been a software consultant for over 10 years now and
there are 2 sayings that I try to live by.
1. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
2. If the damn thing works, LEAVE IT ALONE!
So far, they have not failed me. I just hope that by making
FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:32 Page 4
the current changes we have not opened a can of worms.
Bruce Lomasky
Fido #208 (net 16 I think)
West Hartford, CT
I can remember when my parents bought our first and only
computer!. It was an IBM PC that I was very proud of. We
bought it in the summer of 81, It had an amazing 48k which
we quickly upgraded to 64k and eventually to 256 when dad
found he could not run Lotus on 128k. I got my modem a year
later after whinning one for weeks. I signed on to my first
board to find that there was nothing not any thing for the
IBM! Now what do I do? well you leave messages, but I did
not understand how to leave them or get rid of the ones I
screwed up! After many futile tries the sysop broke in and
said "I thought IBM's were business machines?" This scared
the pajeebers out of me and I turned my modem off, calmed
down and called the board back back and the sysop explained
what had happened. This is something you just don't do to a
first time user folks! I don't care how nice the sysop is
you just don't tell a 13 year old kid that there are no
games for his computer (by the way I have forgiven Paul for
doing this). So I sat down and wrote a game called Zor and
then wrote ZorII and I'm in the process of writing ZorIII
but I haven't gotten very far. After playing my game about
ten times I decided it was no fun to play your own adventure
games because yo knew how to win them. Finaly the sysop I
had my first encounter with got some games and I was
satisfied for a while but not for ever. Now I have about 30
disks full of games and another 20 full of utilities progams
I don't have time to use because I'm to busy trying to
scrape enough money together so I can install a phone line
and put up a board and share my games and ancient wares but
till then I'll try to upload to the other boards in College
Station. Your probably wondering though why I don't make
long distance calls to other boards well I have two very
good reasons! 1)Don't have the money to call long distance
2)You must be validated on most boards before you can
download. I have been helping alot of my friend with thier
computers though. I even have one paying 15 dollars and
hour to convert wordstar files to ascii and then uploading
them to his Commodore 64. Along with doing that I have been
trying to write a program that allows my Pc to be a burgular
alarm. Along with working 4:30-9:00 Tues,Thurs and 4:30-
11:00 on Fri, Sat and 2:00-7:00 on Sunday, and fighting my
family for the use of the computer I don't see how I get any
thing done. Maybe I should but my own computer instead of a
phone line! hmmmm lets see, 3400 dollars for a new computer?
well maybe I'll get the new phone line at 3.50 an hour I
don't think I will be able to get a new computer maybe a
used one but not a new one. Oh well life does go on but my
article can't! Be on the look out for Ollie's board near the
end of the month. I think I'll have a game review on the
board and expand it to Fido news so Fido users will know
what Pd games are worth playing!
I run a relatively new bbs, and one with a different
flavor. I wanted to have a place to call and get info and
numbers to other BBS's around the nation. Since I could not
find one, I decided to start my own. Since this is the
first Fido to be devoted to the upkeep of other BBS's, I
don't have a preset format to follow. I know that most all
BBS's have their own list of local and national numbers, but
I thought there might just be a need for a "National" number
keeper. The reason I'm writing this is because I would like
to ask for help. If all the Fido's would compile their list
of numbers and send them to me via Netmail, that would be of
great help. I also need some help verifying the numbers.
I am thinking of putting in a file section so that any BBS
who has a pay system can Advertise their systems, and can
keep a current catalog on file. Any input or suggestions?
If you would like to help out, or want some further info.
send a message via netmail to me at net 17 node 35.
Note: My system is semi-restricted. If you would like
advance sign-up send Name, Pwd, Phone#, etc.
Greg Martz
Sysop Fido 17/35
FIDONEWS -- 24 Jun 85 00:00:39 Page 8
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FOR SALE
============================================================
The Computer Farm now carries Hard Drives for the Sanyo MBC
55x Computers. We are operating these systems on our Fido
node 428. The system is an External 5 or 10 meg system with
controler and driver for up 4 drives. We have Tested the
driver with MSDOS 2.11, DS-DOS and AOK DOS. The hard drive
system only takes 10-20 min. to install.
5 Meg External ................ 995.00
10 Meg External ...............1095.00
For more information on thes systems send mail to Node 428
net 15 or call 1 800 621 8386 Ext 283. In Colorado call 303
495-3815.
===========================================================
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===========================================================
You may have noticed that last week's issue of Fidonews came
out a little late in some areas. It seems we made what
appears to be a fairly common mistake.
Fido treats its node list as gospel. If you have a 1200
baud modem and try to send mail to a node with a 2400 baud
modem, Fido will try to make the call at 2400 baud.
Obviously, this won't work very well. (You are in a
similar, or worse, position if you have a 300 baud modem.)
The answer is to edit your node list, making sure that
nobody is listed with a higher baud rate than you can
support.
We overlooked this for the simple reason that NODELIST.EXE
used to take care of this for us.
------------------------------------------------------------
*** Calendar of Events ***
30 Jun 85 Submissions deadline for next issue of Fidonews.
If you have any event you want listed in this calendar,
please send a note to node 107/375.
