12/1/1980 The Ultimate Adventure GameAn interesting sidelight to the computer piracy game has resulted in people buying protected software for the challenge of breaking it. This concept may seem strange considering the price of software, but these people thrive on the most sophisticated protection schemes. To them, it is the ultimate "adventure game." I've met many Apple owners who have spent much more time breaking a game disk than they ever spent playing the game. And a good portion of these people purchased that disk. In some cases, particularly among the more addicted experts, friends will gladly loan them any program in exchange for an ion protected copy that they can use for trading purposes. Hence, the danger of widespread trading or piracy of a disk doesn't always lie with the person who breaks the disk, but with their loss of control once their friends obtain a copy. Unfortunately, the software protection business is a paradox. While coding a disk is like a lock, keeping honest people honest, the more sophisticated protection schemes on well-written software attract the best codebreakers. The only consolation to some software houses is that the quality of their programs doesn't interest the pirates or codebreakers.
Jeffrey Stanton, Venice, CA - V1N4 Comments are closed.
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