cg
Pc Solutions
>In article <bes0D1D...@netcom.com> be...@netcom.com (Brian Souza) writes:
>> I have seen several articles mentioning copy protection on certain
>>chess programs. the major chess programs available what kind of
>>protection schemes do they use? chess Genius 3.0? Fritz 3.0? Hiarcs?
>>W-Chess? and what about the data-base programs? Chess Assistant 1.4? CB
>>4.0 for dos or Windows? is the protection based on key disk or a wheel type?
>Here is the info that I have gathered so far on top level chess programs
>(sorry, I have no useful info on database programs).
>Ratings are from the Swedish Rating List, published quarterly
>by the ICCA (International Computer Chess Association). Ratings have
>been adjusted (by adding 180 points) to account for the different
>scale used by USCF and Swedish ratings.
>
>Program Rating Copy Prot. Can run from floppy Price
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>M Pro 4.0 2515 (1) Yes No $149.95
>WChess ? (2) Yes No $149.95
>Rebel 6.0 2521 Yes No $149.95
>Genius 3.0 2546 (3) Yes Yes $149.95
>Fritz 3.0 2415 (4) Yes No $115.00
>Hiarcs 2.0 2429 Yes Yes $149.95
>CM4000 2492 No No $39.95 (5)
[That CM4000 rating sounds inflated..]
>Notes:
>
>(1) Best estimate, based upon rating of M-Chess Pro 3.5
>(2) New program, rating not known. Estimated to be close to Genius 3.
>(3) Best estimate, based upon rating of Genius 2.0.
>(4) Best estimate, based upon rating of Fritz 2.0
>(5) No, this is not a typo. ChessMaster 4000 *really* costs only $39.95!
>
>Here's a real tough puzzle; find the program in the list above that has
>
>(1) No copy protection
>(2) A rating high enough for almost anyone
>(3) Low Price
>
>The Puzzle Answer program also has *plenty* of features and is user-friendly.
>I am saying this to point out that there is *no* reason for us to put up
>with copy protection any more as long as there are programs like ChessMaster
4000
>(darn it, I just gave the answer away!).
>
>As for my own experience with copy protection, I currently own Genius 2.0.
>This program **locks up your whole computer** when it is not happy about
>the current installation; you have to re-boot the system to get going again.
>I had installed one of the two copy protection "tokens" (a euphemism for "we
>just screwed up a sector on your hard drive") and everything was working OK
>until I decided to change my Stacker compression ratio. I forgot to
"uninstall
>the token" (read "un-screw the hard drive") before I did this, and lost the
>token. Now I'm afraid to install the second (and last) token, because I
>know it's just a matter of time before I lose it too and am left with
>a totally useless $149.95 floppy disk. At least Genius can be run from the
>floppy. Sometimes I do this but it's a real pain because the startup is so
>slow; besides, all floppies wear out eventually if used often enough.
>I purchased CM4000, and I use CM most of the time now.
>
>Anyway, the above experience is mild as far as these things go. I have
>friends who have trashed their hard drives with copy protected software.
>
>I intend to contact ICD (Institutional Computer Development Corp), which
>is the supplier who sold me my copy of Genius, and inform them that I am not
>going to purchase copy protected software anymore, from them or anyone else.
>If you've had bad experiences with copy protection, I urge you to do the
>same. We *can* change this if enough people really want to!
>
Ok, let me give some balance to this. First I will explain who I am -
My name is Adrian Millett, and I am a programmer who is involved with
some new work with Richard Lang on the Chess Genius program, as well
as someone who has written and marketed his own Chess and Draughts
programs - through the shareware channels. I will say now that THE
OPINIONS I AM ABOUT TO EXPRESS ARE MY OWN - and may not necessarily
be the position of Richard Lang (the author of Chess Genius program).
Also all the experiences I relate pertain to my own position/programs
rather than CG - unless I say otherwise..
I have been doing this sort of thing for around 10 years, so I have
some authority to speak about it. First the specific points you mention -
Chess Genius has probably one of the most computer-freindly schemes in
use - it is very popular and in wide use, with a negligable complaint
rate on this issue. The new version has been boosted to 3 install tokens,
and as you say, you can run off the floppy too. As to locking up the
computer - well if you are running it as a Windows task when it does
this, just use ALT-CTRL-DEL and close that task down, and continue
with windows - if you are running from DOS - well is it really such
a big deal to reboot your computer? It wont hurt! It *ONLY* does
this when it detects a possible illegal (pirated) installation -
this will be very rare - I mean once it says this, you dont keep trying -
you reinstall. As to "screwing up your hard drive" - on
what basis do you make this assertion? For obvious reasons I cannot
discuss precise details, however I can assure you that everything
that the CG installation does is system legal and clean, and the
programmers who designed it are painfully aware of the (undeseved)
reputation that copy protection has, and have taken great measures
to make it so. Since I cannot discuss the measures used by CG, I
will give, as an example, the broad outline of the system I use with
SAGE DRAUGHTS, the master-strength checkers playing program I have
written and sell. First, on installation, my program checks the floppy
for something harmless but unique, something that will not copy with
a diskcopy. Then I examine your PC system for some characteristics
(a "fingerprint") unique to that system - completely harmless again.
Finally, when installing, I will encode that information with the
installation copy on the disk, and if that "fingerprint" ever changes,
it refuses to run. No "screwing up the hard disk" as you put it - any
decent programmer should be able to do this safely. On SAGE I allow
infinite installs from the original - however, I could very easily
install tokens by writing back an encoded count to the floppy - again,
all standard read/writes, no more harmful than the read/writes performed
by your system all the time. Of course non-programming people get
"whipped up" by people with panic stories, but there is
NO JUSTIFICATION to single out copy-protection as a cause of problems.
Of course there are bad examples of protection, but there are plenty
of examples of bad programming in some very well known products generally
screwing up your system anyway - you dont need to use a copy protected
program to do that - just a crap program! Of course whenever something
*DOES* go wrong in a system which has a protected installation on it,
guess what gets blamed first!
On a personal note, let me say that as far as I am concerned, anyone
who buys CG (or one of my other programs) from me, and has any problem
whatsoever, will get a sympathetic hearing from me - its only
the illegal customers we want to stop. Also, even if you do use
all your tokens on a disk, you can return that disk to get the
half price upgrade, with 3 new tokens to use. As I said, certainly me,
and also any rep dealer, will be sypathetic to genuine customers with
genuine problems.
As I said, I have had a lot of experience writing/selling my own
shareware programs - I think with all the magazine disks and shareware
disks and CD's published, the numbers of copies of the shareware versions
runs to many millions. (see BLITZ/DYNAMO draughts, DAMA ITALIANA, FLIPIT
on PSL/PDSL/JCSM, PCW CD's passim..) The registered versions have infinite
installs, but must be installed from an original. I sell them for
30 pounds, or $49 - not too expensive, you may think. Take DAMA ITALIANA,
for instance (it plays the unusual version of Italian draughts). I have
sold 2 dozen copies. There are blokes selling them in street markets
cheap - sometimes even with a free virus (that does my rep a lot of good).
I keep a close eye on these things, and I know who these people are,
either thro the embedded serial no, or thro friends, but do you think
I want this aggro?
Italian master players tell me how much they like DAMA ITALIANA - and
it has a rep as a good player of the game - but what would you do in
my shoes? The result is that I am not updating the program (or correcting
known bugs) until I can improve the scheme to counteract the method
the pirates use (yes, I know what they do) and improve the method I use for
my own programs (which is not THAT rigourous - I thought I would be kind,
with this payback!) or I may decide not to update at all - hard luck on
the honest masters who DID pay.
Another example - I released SAGE DRAUGHTS for the Amiga without any
protection. Its very popular in Malta apparently - it beat their champion.
I say its popular - I have sold two there - although I have had a
number of letters from people saying how much they like it (amazing
that people do that!) saying they brought it from so and so - they MUST be
pirated versions, since I never released SAGE as shareware for the Amiga.
The result? SAGE for the Amiga was never updated, I moved on to more
profitable fields, and players wonder why there are no new programs..
I dont want to whine on about it - as I said I have released shareware
versions of my programs, and the idea that the shareware programs are very
widely used gives me pleasure - even if 99.9% are unpaid for - of course I
do wish that more people would register! And I will let you into a little
secret - (my OWN OPINION again!) - if someone brought one of my DRAUGHTS
progs, and then also installed ONE copy onto a mate's computer (who might
not buy it anyway) - I would not lose sleep over it - I would not approve,
but at least you did buy one from me. What REALLY gets my goat is
large scale abuse - when that 1 becomes 2,4,8,16,32,64.. and when you
issue programs without protection, this is what can (& will) happen.
Small authors are particularly vulnerable - a large company will have
a high-street presence for its product, with all that implies - do you
go to the black market and pick up a virus, or down the high street?
But my product is mail order only, so suddenly the bootleg version
seems better than sending money overseas. (Richards situation with
CG3 is better because he has US dealers, but remember, we all start
small!) I know that some of the people who critisise Copy protection
are those involved in very large computer chess projects, sponsered
by very large companies for prestige, but try to put yourself in
the shoes of a small author. Its no coincidence that *ALL* the products
at the upper price range from individual authors are protected - many
released v1.0 unprotected, then re-evaluated on v2.0...
Another point - CG3 is a very, very finely crafted product, in very
highly optimised assembler language (as opposed to slow C, used by big
commercial developers), the result of over a decade of intensive work.
It will well out-perform anything in the shops in pure ELO terms - but
pure ELO is not the only reason an analyst (should) buy a program for
- its not like gallons of petrol or pounds of beef - different programs
will delight you with subtle and different styles and playing ideas
- if you have spent $2000 on a pentium 90 for chess, you would be an
idiot to just buy one $39 program! Incidentally, joe seems to imply
that it is wrong to charge $149 for a program - well when you compare
it to the hardware sytem cost, or to the cost of a TASC console, its
pretty good - its really depends how serious you are about chess.
What makes you think that modern software DOESNT use copy protection?
Have you tried to make a copy of Microsoft Encarta? Of course its
fills out to 650 megs, so its ok. What about those apps that come
on 30 disks, or CD? How many people copy those disks/manuals, or say,
"Blow it, I'll go out and buy a nice shiny new one..". With many of these
apps, you really *MUST* have the manuals - I wonder if that is by design?
These big products have guarenteed income from corperate buyers, who
*MUST* buy the real thing or risk being sent to jail by F.A.S.T. -
doesnt apply to chess! Incidentally, how many prosecutions have FAST
brought for use of non-registered shareware (technically just as illegal
as pirated software) - I never recall seeing any cases mentioned!
Of course those big apps will wear your hard disks out much more
effecvtively than any copy scheme could, as they send your heads skating
about the surface to retrieve their overblown components. Progs like
mine and Richards are DELIBERATELY small - indeed they owe performance
and strength to it (small progs are faster) - sort of "Reduced Program
Length" (RPL) programming - an idea whose time will come like (RISC)..
Another little point - CM3000 played a mediocre game of chess -
CM4000 only improved when they brought in an assembly language engine
from an independant small author. If you campain to banish copy protection,
and these small authors are unable to fund their work, and there are no
independant authors, do you think these large faceless companys will
be bothered (or even able) to immense invest the effort (or inspire
programmers to..) write & improve the engines at the rate that the
current top programs improve? There are some things that are ONLY
done really well by small, independant, highly motivated authors..
Phew! Well, thats my lot. If you want more info, there is an auto-reply
service for Chess Genius - send an empty EMAIL to:
geniu...@centron.com
or for specific questions, contact
pc.sol...@phoenix.centron.com
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own |
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Joe Stella
It is far too long for that, and I just don't have the time. I am
just going to say this - you can't copy protect software. Adrian
complains that people have broken his copy-protect scheme, so he is
not going to upgrade his program until he can "counter" this.
Adrian, what makes you think that people are not going to be able to
counter your counter? If a copy protect scheme can be invented, it
can be cracked. Meanwhile, honest users like me have to pay for it.
It costs programmer time (time = money) to invent counter-counter-counter
protection schemes, and the cost of this gets passed on to *me*.
Nevertheless, if anyone really thinks it is *absolutely necessary* to use
copy protection, they are of course free to do so. I am also free to decide
not to buy their product if I don't want to.
In closing I want to say that I did not intend to single out Chess Genius.
I sense a lot of emotion in Adrian's response, and I did not mean to
imply that CG is worse than any other product. It just so happened that
CG is the program I purchased, so it was the one I knew about. I was
only using it as an example of what I did not like (and still do not like)
about copy protected software.
Joe Stella
<jo...@ultranet.com>
BradleeJ
installation. I just had cross-clusters on my hard disk (not an all that
uncommon occurance on DOS machines) and lost the data in the files. This
was NOT related to WChess. It was to almost random subdirectories that got
crossed up. Still, if it had been WChess, I would have had to used another
token.
I don't mind copy protection in which you brand the disk and then create
some copy protect function on the hard drive, but here are a couple of
potential problems:
1. After Christmas I suspect that 486 and Pentium prices are going to
plummet. I've suffered with this old 386DX-33 long enough :) If the copy
protection scheme has used the ID from the processor to brand itself, I'm
now stuck with burning another token.
2. I'm not currently using double space or Stacker on my system but I
still get cross clusters on occasion (such as when a Windoze application
locks up). All it wil take is one bad cluster and I'm stuck again.
Briefly, I have no problem with copy protection, especially when it comes
to small enterprises that are doing high class work (such as CG and WChess
et al.) You arer right that in comparison to the cost of a Pentium the
cost of WChess or CG is relativey small. Your assembly language code is
probably even more beneficial to saps like me that can't afford to cough
up two thousand bucks for a Pentium. I am willing, therefore, to spend the
extra bucks to get a really good chess program such as WChess or CG to
wring a little more performance out of the machinery I do have. To have to
pay an extra sum to get three more tokens if the thing goes down is
appalling to me. Also, I'm not sure how your license read, but wouldn't I
be well withing my rights to install the program on my machine at home and
on my machine at work as long as I am not simultaneously using them? I
also have a laptop I would like to install it on but wouldn't with the
limitation of the tokens. You see, I'm trying to legitmately use the
application and have legitimate reasons to install it on multiple
platforms, but the copy protection scheme prevents this.
All I'm asking is for a better scheme (even if I have to call a number to
get a password, it would preferable to the token scheme).
Regards.
-Bradlee
Nothing strengthens the case for scepticism more than the fact that there
are people
who are not sceptics. If they all were, the would be wrong.
From Pensees by Blaise Pascal
John Harbour
thousands of users. Doesn't say much for the effectiveness of copy
protection as a solution to the problem of people stealing software, does
it?
Before buying any program I ask "Is it copy protected?" If the answer is
yes, I don't buy it. I played these games in the past (remember dBase
III+?), got bored with them and will never install a copy-protected
program on a computer of mine again. I own CM4000, recommend it often,
and would not dream of installing my copy onto anyone else's machine.
In summary, I believe copy protection may well reduce the total sales of
any given program. The fact that commercial business software has
abandoned protection would seem to back this up.
John Harbour
jhar...@cix.compulink.uk
Pc Solutions
>My own, personal, feeling is that I will *never again* buy any PC software
>that has copy protection. If it's something I've gotta have, I may well
>buy it, but I don't mind spending the time necessary with a good debugger
>so that I can crack the protection and eliminate it. However, if we all
>simply quit buying software with copy protection, it will go away due to
>market pressure. It is *impossible* to stop piracy by protection schemes
>since anti-protection software abounds everywhere. Its nothing more than
>an irritation... use your power as a consumer to get rid of it...
See my earlier EMAIL for more detail.. Now, as I understand it, guys
like you get funding from CRAY to do your work - as do others like
Deep thought, etc.. Now thats fine, good luck to you, but do try
and think about the position of the small independent author.
If you look at the top PC programs, ALL of them (or the engines
in the programs) were developed by such people. When you start out
like this, you do not have access to 256 colour glossy printing, CDROM
production, US dealer networks, etc - and the market size forces
you to price at around $100+ - so if you DON'T use some protection,
you are very vulnerable. How does such an author break into the
market, without risking the problems I outlined before?
And yet if it *WASN'T* for such authors, the PC market probably would
not have the strong programs it has today. If you abolished copy
protection tomorrow, the top authors like Richard Lang, Mark Uniake,
etc would be able to find other channels to market their established
engines - but pity the poor guy starting out! Also the enthusiasts
market would be less well served - big corporations are less reactive
to the needs of the top end of the market (particularly in terms of speed
of turnaround), and the emphasise is different - for example, Chess
Genius gives priority to functional features, and is disinclined
to sacrifice hash-table space, whereas with a product like CM4000 the
brief is "By all means make it strong, but we can sacrifice some strength,
speed and space in exchange for pretty graphics, etc".
Try using CM4000 intensively on an ordinary PC with 4 megs of RAM..
{Whereas CG will run fine, giving you 3 megs of HASH - saving you
$180 cost of a 4 MEG RAM upgrade.. I don't want to get into a "slanging off
CM4000" thing - the program has its own merits, but because it targets a
broader market, some compromises are inevitable. A serious analyst would
do well to have both a broad prog like CM and a super-strength prog like
CG..}
You are wrong about protection - there are schemes I have seen that
defeat the best devices - and devices which target specific products
are illegal to sell/buy/use in the UK (I don't know about the US).
Pc Solutions
writes:
>
>Can anyone tell me a few really good (i.e., very hard to beat) chess
>programs/machines for sale (preferably for less than $100 or so);
>hopefully the information will also give me insight into how/where I
can
>purchase one of the programs/machines. I need this information by this
>Monday at 12:00.
>
>I'll pay $10 for the best(imho) answer.
>
Well, there is "Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess", based on a scaled down
version of the Chess Genius engine, (will still play a damn good game)
as well as a tutorial prog based on Fishers book, or the ubiquitous
ChessMaster 4000, or instead of $10, send me $20 and I will send you the
PCS Games-Pack-1, with the standard versions of SAGE DRAUGHTS
(very strong), CHESS MATE (not so strong, but OK for beginners, and
cheap!) + shareware versions of FLIPIT (othello), DYNAMO DRAUGHTS
and DAMA ITALIANA & other programs.
Send a blank email to:-
geniu...@centron.com for a contact address, or questions to
pc.sol...@phoenix.centron.com.
Pc Solutions
israel.s...@moondog.uucp.netcom.com (ISRAEL SILVERMAN) writes:
>>From: israel.s...@moondog.uucp.netcom.com (ISRAEL SILVERMAN)
>>Subject: Chess Computers
>>Date: Sun, 18 Dec 94 14:36:00 -0500
>>
>>CS> (2) Buy a TASC R30. That machine is amazing (2550+).
>> Is TASC R30 stronger than Chess Genius 3 running on a
>> functioning Pentium 100?
>>Israel.S...@moondog.com
>
>In Vol 4, No 2 of CCR (Computer Chess Reports) a ratings list is given. The
>top two entries are TASC R30 (running King 2.2) with a Mean score of 2526
>and the MephistoGenius 68030 with a Mean of 2489. These are dedicated
>machines though (30 mhz and 33 mhz respectively). The same publication
>gives some software ratings running on 486 66 dx2's. The top two are
>Mephisto Genius 2.0 (Mean 2549) and King 2.0 (at 30 mhz) (Mean 2533). The
>only Chess Genius reported is version 1.0 (listed 5th at Mean 2491).
In fact Mephisto Genius 2 & Chess Genius 2 for the PC are the same program
- just alternative names.
>Sorry I can't say more about how the ratings are obtained. However, I
>suspect that the effort in CCR is for them to be comparable.
My own opinion is that Chess Genius 3 on a Pentium 100 will definately
be stronger overall that the TASC R30 - but I am involved with CG so
take that how you like. By the way "functioning Pentium 100" is
mentioned here - if that is a ref to the Pentium FDIV bug, I can
catagorically state that this bug will *NOT* effect Genius (or
any other chess prog) - so if you are offered a discounted Pentium PC
because the processor has this bug, grab it!
ISRAEL SILVERMAN
PS> My own opinion is that Chess Genius 3 on a Pentium 100 will
PS> definately be stronger overall that the TASC R30 - but I am involved
PS> with CG so take that how you like. By the way "functioning Pentium
PS> 100" is
Can you tell us, to the extent you are permitted, how CG 3 varies from
CG 2, and how much of an increase in strength CG3 has, say on a 486/66
and on a Pentium 90 (in other words, for each platform, how much
increase is there?)
---
* RM 1.3 02344 * A closed mind gathers no information
Carl Tillotson
writes:
John me ole lad, what you doing in here. Didn't know you were picking
up my ramblings all this time :-)
> program on a computer of mine again. I own CM4000, recommend it often,
> and would not dream of installing my copy onto anyone else's machine.
I would go along with this. CM4000 is very good. Of course it could do
with a few improvements, which will hopefully come in CM5000 although
I'm sure they will rename it to something like ChessMaster '96' :-)
> In summary, I believe copy protection may well reduce the total sales of
> any given program. The fact that commercial business software has
> abandoned protection would seem to back this up.
I am still out on this I'm afraid. The big commercials can *afford* to
not put copy protection on. I am inclined to believe that the smaller
outfits, who are producing what is after all a specialised product,
must take out some form of insurance to protect their investment. The downside
is that usually the *copy protection* does not work. What really
rattles me, is that in this thread we have had a number of postings
suggesting that people buy this wonderful *copy protection* buster.
Anyway, we in the UK are more *honest*, figures show that the amount of
illegal copying in the UK is small compared to the likes of Portugal,
Spain, Italy and even Germany. Worldwide, I think the UK's record is only
bettered by the US.
What the solution is for these small software houses, I really don't
know. It has been argued that they *need* to sell at $150, and can't
afford to sell at $30-40. I would like to think that they would sell
maybe ten times more if they sold at $30-40 instead of $150. I for one,
would but Fritz or Genius if I could afford it, also at this price I wouldn't
expect to see too much copy protection. I am not going to spend
the best part of 80 on Fritz for two installs. I have trashed my HD 5
time this year alone, sorry last year now :-).
The inconvience of having to send the disks back to the manufacturer
for more installs puts me off the idea completly. I also know someone,
who has actually gone and paid 80 for Fritz, and is now regretting it.
He is so afraid that his HD will crash and corrupt the protection.
Unlike myself, he is not familar with the PC at all. I have suggested
that he rings up the help line to find out whether the boot-up disk he had produced
will work should his HD crash, and he put the data back on from backup.
Adios Amigo
Carlos
@ ----------------------------------- @
@ car...@piffle.demon.co.uk @
@ ctill...@cix.compulink.co.uk @
@ car...@pdcfs1.pdc.nhs.gov.uk @
@ ----------------------------------- @
Hal Bogner
[lots of stuff deleted...]
>
>What the solution is for these small software houses, I really don't
>know. It has been argued that they *need* to sell at $150, and can't
>afford to sell at $30-40. I would like to think that they would sell
>maybe ten times more if they sold at $30-40 instead of $150. I for one,
>would but Fritz or Genius if I could afford it, also at this price I wouldn't
>expect to see too much copy protection. I am not going to spend
>the best part of 80 on Fritz for two installs. I have trashed my HD 5
>time this year alone, sorry last year now :-).
>
>The inconvience of having to send the disks back to the manufacturer
>for more installs puts me off the idea completly. I also know someone,
>who has actually gone and paid 80 for Fritz, and is now regretting it.
>He is so afraid that his HD will crash and corrupt the protection.
>Unlike myself, he is not familar with the PC at all. I have suggested
>that he rings up the help line to find out whether the boot-up disk he had produced
>will work should his HD crash, and he put the data back on from backup.
>
Won't these companies let you buy a new disk without returning the old one?
What if you have lost your disk? If they will, then spend the $5-10 ahead of
time, as insurance.
(Of course, that's why people are buying those copy-protection busting devices
that also offend you, Carlos. They want to make fully-functional backups of
their original copy-protected disks, and they have a perfect right to do that.)
-hal bogner
who doesn't believe in the "need" for copy protection
(which is why Chess Labs and Electronic Arts didn't apply it to chess
products during my tenures)
Carl Tillotson
> (Of course, that's why people are buying those copy-protection busting devices
> that also offend you, Carlos. They want to make fully-functional backups of
> their original copy-protected disks, and they have a perfect right to do that.)
Wrong, they do not have the *right*. The only rights that they have are
those bestowed upon them per se the License Agreement. Read it
sometime.
Hal Bogner
>In article: <hmbD1r...@netcom.com> h...@netcom.com (Hal Bogner) writes:
>
>> (Of course, that's why people are buying those copy-protection busting devices
>> that also offend you, Carlos. They want to make fully-functional backups of
>> their original copy-protected disks, and they have a perfect right to do that.)
>
>Wrong, they do not have the *right*. The only rights that they have are
>those bestowed upon them per se the License Agreement. Read it
>sometime.
>
>Adios Amigo
>
>Carlos
Perhaps this is just a cultural difference. As I understand it, under US law,
the purchaser has a perfect right to create a working backup.
If that's not so in the UK, you have my sympathies. ;-(
>
>@ ----------------------------------- @
>@ car...@piffle.demon.co.uk @
>@ ctill...@cix.compulink.co.uk @
>@ car...@pdcfs1.pdc.nhs.gov.uk @
>@ ----------------------------------- @
>
Hal Bogner
Half Moon Bay, California, USA
pete...@clark.net
: outfits, who are producing what is after all a specialised product,
: afford to sell at $30-40. I would like to think that they would sell
: would but Fritz or Genius if I could afford it, also at this price I wouldn't
It really bothrs me when I see anyone claim that they *have* to charge
150$or else no one would buy the product. I think the biggest change in
the software industry of late is "Subscription" pricing. You don't need
yet another chess program no matter how nifty. You are buying the
upgrade to your currewnt capabilities, and its an upgrade whether or not
yopu own the original.
If Chess Genius or Fritz or whoever prices 150$ for a new product that
only offers a small improvement over CM4K, and is more difficult to use
because of copy protection, I fail to see any reason to buy this
product. I would buy another chess program for 30 or 40 bucks. If is
sucks I just throw it on the shelf and add to my collection. 18 months
later I'm more than willing to pay 40 bucks for the next version with no
upgrade discount. Over time the revenue stream flattens out whether or
not you have a large installed base.
By setting intial prices high the barrier to entry to the upgrade path
are so high that noone ever gets there. So no one ever buys the product
except those who don't care about the price. And if you want their money
only you should raise the price to 500$ or a thousand.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
snailmail: Pete Shaw, 5722 N 11th St Apt 9,Arlington, VA 22205
vox:703-534-9170 email:pete...@clark.net or Peter...@aol.com
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Possibly Gilman ought not to have studied so hard. Non-euclidean calculus and
quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with
folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality
behind ghoulish hints of Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney
corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension.
HP Lovecraft: The Dreams in the Witch-House
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