Jinx wrote:
>> Putting copy protection on the disk itself will *only* penalize
>> legitimate users. If somebody wants to steal it bad enough they
>> will, and once they have, everybody else who wants it free will
>> have it within days
>>     
>
> That's why I think a dongle or some hardware dependency isn't
> that much of a burden or inconvenience
>   
Your right, i have used plenty of pirated software that was supposed to
use a dongle.
(for non profit purposes of course)
Those dongles sure did work well, (well i assume that all the legitimate
purchasers never had a problem with them because the dongle free pirated
version worked fine.)

> Certainly consumers have rights, but what about Dwayne's right
> not to be ripped off ? If you aren't there already, put yourself in
> his place. Exactly how charitable do you think you'd be if sales
> dwindled to a fraction of what they should be ? You could turn
> from liberal to conservative pretty quickly when it's your money
> on the line
>   
Sure thing, but deluding yourself into thinking that copy protection
will provide that is silly.
Use a serial number and perhaps it could just "email in" that it had
been installed. Nothing to stop the instillation or anything and if you
are a "dedicated hax0r" you will bypass it. But do not make it hard to
use or you will piss your valid users off.
The people who pirate your software will use it without any of that
licensing stuff in it. So the harder the license scheme the harder it is
on people who have paid for it.
> A story the other day about a local band - they should be making
> a living wage, but an estimated 90% of distribution of their material
> is peer-to-peer, for which they get nothing
>   
Depends on who calculates the 90% I think ;-P.
P2P sharing of stuff that people don't want shared is a bad thing.
That is theft and should be treated as such. With the knowledge that it
is the digital age and the only damage caused is financial.
> Forget my other examples. I think they have a common principle
> but the point doesn't seem to be getting across
>
>   
It is but you don't seem to see why requiring your customers to jump
through some licencing scheme that if you go away means they are left
high and dry is a bad thing.

If ford went bust you can keep driving you car after its next service.
If Microsoft goes bust nobody with legitimate XP can keep their machine
running through a hardware upgrade.
People who pirate XP won't have a problem though....
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist