Preventing date rollback

[Dr. Orville R. Weyrich]

In article <333 at bria> mike at bria.UUCP (Michael Stefanik) writes:
>In article <1991Jan7.201353.17937 at nas.nasa.gov> vancleef at nas.nasa.gov (Robert E. Van Cleef) writes:
>>The sad thing about all of these copy protection schemes is that they serve
>>the needs of the vendor, not the needs of the client. 
>
>That is because the user is most likely NOT interested in protecting the
>interests of the vendor.  Can you realistically expect the industry to roll
>over when the users are busy sticking a knife in our back?
>
>>We recently invoked the "roll back the clock" function to allow the continued 
>>execution of one protected program because the update the vendor gave us to 
>>restore functionality required us to install an OS software upgrade that we 
>>aren't ready to install...
>
>While unfortunate that your vendor wouldn't be able to help you without an OS
>upgrade, that is sometimes the cost of improvement.  You have an agenda, but
>*so does the software company*.  If you don't like the fact that they are
>requiring to move forward faster than you feel comfortable with, then you
>simply are using the wrong product.  The point is, *life goes on*, and with
>that comes change. 
>
>If you are doing something like swapping motherboards, then simply let the
>software company know in advance what you are doing, and I'm sure they'll 
>accomodate you.  If you want to take the attitude of "why should I have to 
>call someone else when I'm changing something on my machine", then you're
>living in a vacuum, and your expectations will never be met.

	It's a hassle that I could do without. Given a choice, I will
	avoid exposing myself to this kind of hassle.
>
>If the copy protection causes daily interference in one's life, then I
>would say that the protection was a hassle, and dump the product.  On the
>other hand, the customer needs to consider the needs of the author(s).
>Assuming that no one pointed a gun at your head and said "buy this software",
>you made a choice, and with that choice comes rules.  Live with it or
>get out.

	If I know in advance that any company holds a philosophy like
	this I will never "GET IN" in the first place. It costs me
	money to dump a product. It costs me money to install upgrades.
	If I have a product which works and serves my needs, I am not
	at all sympathetic to a company deciding that their "agenda"
	is that I upgrade my system in order to continue to use a
	product that I have committed my business to.
>
>-- 
>Michael Stefanik, Systems Engineer (JOAT), Briareus Corporation

It is no use debating whether or not users will violate your intellectual
rights or not by illegal copying (certainly some, but not all, do). The 
lesson of history is that SOMEBODY has to pay for the software in order
for the company to survive. In the MS-DOS world MANY companies have REMOVED
their protection schemes beause they found that people would go to great
lengths to buy (even inferior) software from a competitor in order to
avoid copy protection hassles. The copy protections schemes WERE COUNTER-
PRODUCTIVE to the goal of selling software. Some companies even find
shareware to be a viable marketing scheme. Are there people using the
product without paying for it? Sure. Is the company making more money than
if they copy protected the software and sold it outright? Most likely.

As I recall, the TI-99 personal computer had build-in hardware support
for copy protection (or was it the IBM PC JR?) and part of the marketing 
strategy was to sell the hardware cheap but make sure the users paid
through the nose for copy protected software. This was implemented by
putting the software in hard-to-duplicate firmware cartridges.
In any case, neither of these computers was a big marketing success.

I would be interested in hearing you cite examples of profitable software 
packages that are copy protected when there is an alternative available
that is not copy protected.

I am both a software developer and a consultant concerned with keeping
my customers happy. I avoid copy protections schemes like the plague
in both what I SELL and what I BUY.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orville R. Weyrich, Jr.
Weyrich Computer Consulting
uunet!weyrich!orville