Message from discussion
software protection - dongles & other gizmos
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From: r...@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc,net.micro
Subject: Re: software protection - dongles & other gizmos
Message-ID: <433@othervax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 12:05:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: othervax.433
Posted: Fri Jul 26 12:05:49 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 08:48:56 EDT
References: <1673@ecsvax.UUCP> <1674@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: r...@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn)
Organization: Philips Information Systems - St. Laurent P.Q., Canada
Lines: 88
OxRelay-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site micomvax.UUCP
Summary:
> .... I believe I have a right to carry a
> program home with me to use there (or I might buy a new machine
> as ecsvax!dmimi pointed out) - I can carry the dongle with me,
> but what if that one dongle is needed for two programs, and I'ld
> like to leave one at work for other people to use. Or at work
> we may have several programs from one vendor, but we'd like to use
> them on different cpus - this couldn't be done if they all needed
> the same dongle or serial number.
> --henry schaffer
This is EXACTLY why protection schemes are necessary!!!!
-------
You do NOT have the right to carry the program home!
You do NOT have the right to use it on several CPU's simultaneously!
You do NOT have the right to pass GO!
You do NOT have the right to collect $200!
You ONLY have the right to play by the published rules of the game, NOT the
rules that YOU unilateraly think should be applicable to you.
You ONLY have the right to do what you pay for as specified in the
license agreement, however restrictive or relaxed. You (should) read
this before buying the product.
The same rules apply to all products. One difference with software is that
it is so easy to copy (thus the licensing agrrement). Ever tried copying a
car?. No, books are NOT easy to copy to give something as good as the
original, and in general, cost more to copy than to buy. If they were
easy/cheap to copy then the publishing industry would have taken steps to
protect their product from THEFT (what you are doing when you copy a product
disk for other than backup purposes). I remember from the past several
newsletter-like products which were printed in a light-blue colour which did
not photo-copy well.
Do you expect to be able to use your car tyres on both your cars
simultaneously (wouldn't it be nice if we could copy them to have a backup
for when the originals wore out :-)?
Write-protected floppy disks are NOT particularly fragile things. Sure we
have all had disk problems, but what percentage of these were not associated
with writing/deleting/finger-trouble/bad-handling - extremely small!
(Its quite ridiculous, these supermarkets, I tried to return a dozen eggs
today because I let them drop and smashed them, and they wouldn't replace
them - who do they think they are! :-)
The better products supply a backup disk and will replace the original if
and when you have to switch to the backup - if this takes too long, or your
pet product does not supply a backup, lets discuss how to clean up this act
(e.g. software stores should be geared to replace products in exactly the
same way as other retail outlets, and for the same reasons).
Psychologically however, it is frustating to have to go to this bother when
you know a disk is (should be) so easy to copy.
Psychologically it is even difficult for a software literate person to buy any
piece of software - he knows he could do it himself if only he had the
time - the classic do-it-yourself syndrome.
There a similar phenominon which makes an otherwise totally honest person
think nothing of pilfering a gizmo from work - it frustrates that he/she has
to buy it when it is so available at work and "they have thousands and
anyway a lot get wasted and one won't be missed". It's understandable, but
that doesn't make it legal/moral.
Yes, many of the license agreements are not reasonable, in particular, the
lack of warranty should be a source of concern, but remember, if a warranty
is included, this is going to SIGNIFICANTLY raise the cost of the product,
as would better access to technical support from the vendor - how many
minutes of technical support time/warranty servicing, does it take to wipe
out the profit of a $100 product?
A final point, if these software products are desirably things, then the
software houses that produce them must survive. This means making a profit.
This means (as well as producing good products etc.) protecting themselves
from theft in such a manner that does not mean their products are rejected -
they cannot possible rely on the population to protect their interests. As
the initially quoted article demonstrates, that population at best, in all
good faith, is only protecting its own parochial interests.
Ray Dunn. Manager, PC Product Architecture, Philips Information Systems Ltd.
....philabs!micomvax!othervax!ray
(P.S. Has anyone out there got a version of <copywrit> which will copy the
latest issue of dBATE XXIV? :-)
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