Question on copy protection

[Ken Applequist]

Do software companies still generally have a policy of making their CD's
copy protected? I know that piracy is a problem, but I thought that laws
had been put in affect that make it legal to make backup copies. We're
going on vacation this week and I wanted to bring my laptop which has our
family's favorite game, "The Sims" installed. However, I didn't want to
bring the original disk. So I used Nero to create a copy that I could bring.
Everything seemed to work fine (although I gotta admit, it took a LONG time
to do the copy). I'm even able to start the game using that disk, but then
suddenly it says it can't find the CD drive. I gotta figure there was some
kind of glitch in the copy. So, I'm just wondering what the general industry
protocol is these days on copying disks.

Thanks,
Ken

[Dan G]

You can't copy the Sims with Nero. You need a burner than can read and write
raw, and a program like Alcohol or CloneCD. If you download Alcohol 120%,
you should be able to copy it with the read settings for Safedisc 1,
assuming your drive can read raw.
I think "The Sims" is Safedisc 1.4 protected. The free trial of Alcohol 120%
will copy that.

"Ken Applequist" <ken.app...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:HO5Ka.14510$Kg7....@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...

[Mike Richter]

Ken Applequist wrote:
> Do software companies still generally have a policy of making their
> CD's copy protected? I know that piracy is a problem, but I thought
> that laws had been put in affect that make it legal to make backup
> copies.

There's no consistency. Games tend to be protected. Working software is
likely to be unprotected.

The law says that you're allowed to make an archival copy of software
you won, but it does not preclude the publisher from using copy
protection. If some day the matter comes to court, it will be an
interesting case. A corollary is that much software on the market is not
sold to the buyer; what you get is a license to use the product. In that
case, again, the courts will have to decide what that means.

Mike
--
mric...@cpl.net
http://www.mrichter.com/

[Bob Olhsson]

In article <3EF94393...@cpl.net>, Mike Richter <mric...@cpl.net>
wrote:

>The law says that you're allowed to make an archival copy of software

I'm pretty sure that ruling applied specifically to software provided
on floppy disks because it was easy to demonstrate they were
unreliable!

--
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery Recording Project Design and Consulting
Box 90412, Nashville TN 37209 Tracking, Mixing, Mastering, Audio for Picture
615.385.8051 FAX: 615.385.8196 Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
40 years of making people sound better than they ever imagined!

[olfart]

Many software licenses allow for making one backup copy as long as it isn't
distributed to anyone.
"Bob Olhsson" <o...@hyperback.com> wrote in message
news:250620031314544943%o...@hyperback.com...

[Bob Olhsson]

In article <bdctq6$reavn$1...@ID-34582.news.dfncis.de>, olfart
<olfa...@excite.com> wrote:

>Many software licenses allow for making one backup copy as long as it isn't
>distributed to anyone.

This is absolutely true and a commendable practice. But it is not the
law.