Date: Mon, 20 Jan 92 07:56 EST
From: "Michael E. Marotta" <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 2--Keystone Stormtroopers
GRID News. ISSN 1054-9315. vol 3 nu 3 January 19, 1992.
World GRID Association, P. O. Box 15061, Lansing, MI 48901 USA
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(74 lines) SPA: Jackboot Fascists or Keystone Kops?
(C) 1992 by Michael E. Marotta
Suddenly the doors burst open! US marshals take the Acme Inc.,
employees by surprise!! "Nobody move! Keep your hands away from
those keyboards!" yells the copper. "Oh my gosh! It's the SPA!!"
"Quick stash the disks!!" This 50s cartoon is the cover story of
the June 17, 1991 issue of Information Week, "The Software
Police." Inside is the story of the Software Publishers Associa-
tion. There is nothing laughable about the $90,000 paid to SPA by
IPL, the $100,000 paid by Entrix, the $17,500 paid by Healthline,
the $350,000 paid by Parametrix. At SnapOn Tools, three US
Marshals and an SPAer spent two days going through every one of
280 PCs with their special audit package. Then the burden of proof
shifted to SnapOn to produce purchase orders, manuals, invoices
and asset tags.
"GOVERN-MENTALITY" The SPA claims a staff of 18 to 23 and a
budget of $3.8 million. I had to call three times to get the free
audit program, SPAudit. They also offer to sell a video "It's
Just Not Worth the Risk" for $10 but my three voicemail requests
(Nov, Dec 91 & Jan 92) for this tape were not answered.
+ People with govern-mentality are below norm and the program
SP+Audit underscores this fact.
+ First of all, the README file was created with WordPerfect 5.
Using LIST or TYPE gets you ascii garbage and uneven formating
am+id the text. If you want to view the README file, the
instructions tell you:
+ A) To display on screen type TYPE A:README:MORE
which is bad documentation and doesn't work. Hardcopy reveals the
same problems and when you get to the bottom of the page, you find
that the last few lines print over each other. Apparently, the
typist used the cursor keys to position the text, because it lacks
some necessary LFs (ascii 0A).
+ I created four dummy files 123.EXE, MSDOS.SYS, PROCOMM.EXE and
SK+.COM which are found in the PIF.TXT file of over 600 software
names. The files I created said:
"The problem of copyright looks somewhat different the moment one
accepts copying technology as uncontrollable." Michael Crichton.
+ Then I made more copies at lower directory levels. SPAudit
was indeed able to search down eight directory sublevels to find
copies. However, when I went to print these, the program produced
ascii garbage. It failed on
C:+\123\MIKE\ANOTHER\DEEPER\NEMO\PLUTO\CHIRON\DANTE\ORPHEUS being
unable to print beyond \NEMO.
+ Overall, the SPA proves itself unable to manage PC technology.
This lack of quality is not surprising. No matter how much you
pay for software, you know that the seller "makes no claim of
merchantability or fitness for a particular use..." and won't be
liable for "direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use or inability to use the software or
documentation." That is the disclaimer which comes with SPAudit.
+
"CATCH-22" Following SPAudit guidelines means that you can't
have more than one copy of a program on one computer. Also, all
oF the CARMEN SANDIEGO games run from CARMEN.EXE. The audit
thinks it is looking for EUROPE but will also trip on WORLD, and
TI+ME, etc., meaning that you can get busted for buying more than
one CARMEN, a catch-22.
+ Also, there should be some confusion over dBase, which is no
longer an Ashton-Tate but a Borland product. More importantly, US
District judge Terrence Hatter, Jr., ruled in late 1990 that the
copyright on dBase was voided by their not revealing that it is a
cl+one of a public domain program from JPL.
+ Again, consider the case of SnapOn Tools. The SPA used their
defective software to disrupt a business for two days -- and they
have the nerve to call other people pirates.
+
(GRID News is FREQable from 1:159/450, the Beam Rider BBS)
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