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[Forum] Amiga piracy nearly dead?ANN.lu
Posted on 22-Jul-2004 01:27 GMT by Anonymous26 comments
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It is rather hard nowadays to find Amiga piracy.
Is it really dead, or just deep underground?
Have anti-piracy messages in AmiGIFT worked? :) If anyone remembers how widespread Amiga piracy was in the bad old days, today's Amiga pirating activities are by comparison weak and ineffectual IMHO..
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 1 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Ronald St-Maurice on 22-Jul-2004 00:58 GMT
Don't you need something to pirate first?

Are there enough users to even have piracy?

o_O
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 2 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous Original Poster on 22-Jul-2004 01:27 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (Ronald St-Maurice):
Good questions..
Yes, there are enough things to pirate... just not enough people buying them and pirating?
I don't know how many people out there are there to pirate. Time for a headcount? :)
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 3 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Ronald St-Maurice on 22-Jul-2004 02:48 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous Original Poster):
Time for an integrated DRM* in OS4?

I've seen the DRM* implementation in iTunes and it's fantastic.

*DRM = Digital Rights Management
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 4 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by ilwrath on 22-Jul-2004 02:50 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous Original Poster):
> I don't know how many people out there are there to pirate. Time for a headcount? :)

None, as far as I can figure. Why would you? All that is left is a hobbiest market. If you've been with Amiga for any length of time (and who would be interested in the platform who hasn't?) odds are pretty good you've met and shook hands (or exchanged a few e-mails, if you're on the wrong side of the globe) with the author of the program you just bought.

Why would you want to insult that person by then illegally distributing copies of their work?
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 5 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 05:02 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (ilwrath):
IMHO there is NOTHING to pirate. Less users mean lower chance somebody will be willing supply buyed software to crackers etc.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 6 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 22-Jul-2004 05:15 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Ronald St-Maurice):
Aslong as you don't want to implement Palladium or TCPA i don't mind ;P
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 7 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Ronald St-Maurice on 22-Jul-2004 05:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Amon_Re):
I don't know about those 2 but the DRM in iTunes is very flexible. IMO that kind of DRM would help the Amiga community avoid piracy.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 8 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 22-Jul-2004 05:34 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Ronald St-Maurice):
Read http://www.notcpa.org/ for info on TCPA & Palladium.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 9 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Emeric SH on 22-Jul-2004 05:50 GMT
Maybe an alternative - pirate freeware stuff :)

I don't think anything worth to pirate was released without ties which already provide "anti piracy measures", like OS4 Pre-Release (in order to have it you have to have an AmigaONE, thus you're already have it...)

I admit, there has been no piracy of the Knights and Merchants MorphOS version to my knowledge. I think the 5-6000 (capable to purchase) ppl left in this community are not the last line of defense, they the remains of many a great wars - so they are supportive to their own, methinks.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 10 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 09:45 GMT
I really hope it is dead, and I hope that those pirates now use Windows and never come back. Best would be if those pirates are dead. Most of the Amigans left do not accept Amiga piracy anymore, because we don't want some morons to kill Amiga again now when both OS4 and MOS team have worked hard to bring Amiga back.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 11 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Gabriele Favrin on 22-Jul-2004 12:15 GMT
Why do you beleive that an Win/Mac user will switch to
AmigaOS if he can't find commercial stuff for free as it
happens in its current market?

To be interesting for people different than fans, Amiga
should offer the same things that other platforms give,
including piracy. There is NO REASON for an average user
to buy an Amiga program when he can either: a) get a
free program on Win/Mac/Linux or b) illegally download a
commercial product.

Piracy as well is the force of Win/Mac market. A platform
without it is not a platform for the average 'joe user'.

And don't forget that very few Amiga sites allows to buy
prgrams online, so even who will to pay will be forced to
mail order stuff. So?

- no piracy
- no online buying
- few freware stuff, lot of shareware for things that other
systems give for free or even included in the OS.

Are you sure this is good for Amiga? ;-)
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 12 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Thomas Würgler/Pagan on 22-Jul-2004 13:02 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Ronald St-Maurice):
Well, DRM would certainly mean that I'd be an ex-Amiga user in a split second.

If you want to know some of the reasons for this, you should check this out : http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 13 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 13:06 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Gabriele Favrin):
Don't you undestand that in this small market piracy kills all development. It'äs not same as in Windows, Mac or linux world. You simply can't compare Amiga marjket to mainstream. In the mainstream there is o much more users that developers make lot's of money even if someone pirates their software. If users pirate commercial Amiga software it's quite possible that developer willnot make enough money and then development will just end.

It's totally different situation with Amiga and mainstream.

"Why do you beleive that an Win/Mac user will switch to
AmigaOS if he can't find commercial stuff for free as it
happens in its current market? "

If piracy is the only way some Windows user would switch to Amiga, then it's better he/she continues to use that Wiondows box. You can pirate Windows software as much as you want :P Why should you switch to Amiga if you just want to pirate software ?

If you? or he/she are/is not ready to buy Amiga software and support further development then that person really is not interested about Amiga. And if so, I don't see any reason why he/she should switch to Amiga.

There is much more software which you can pirate in the mainstream. If you just want to opirate software do not start using Amiga.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 14 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by corpse on 22-Jul-2004 13:29 GMT
It's still going on.. I actually have an example in mind right now, but its pretty pathetic piracy at best, keygens for $10 shareware apps from aminet etc; It was lame when they were ripping off the bigger guys, but now they're ripping off hobby coders, way to go! bah.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 15 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Norman Coburn on 22-Jul-2004 14:13 GMT
Piracy is piracy, no matter what it is. most die hard Amiga users keep saying its ok to pirate Windows/Mac/Linux software but then say pirating Amiga software is wrong.

Again piracy is piracy, there is no grey area.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 16 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 19:07 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Norman Coburn):
To a large extent people bring piracy on themselves. The music industry could have got legal downloads going much earlier. The film industry has not learnt from the music industry experience.


Software companies are only now waking up to the facts that translated into some currencies their software is unaffordable and that students don`t have saleries.

There`s a also a false logic that says that each pirated copy is a lost sale. Most users of pirated software would not have bought the full price software, in much the same way as occaisional users make do with cover disk versions.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 17 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 19:13 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Gabriele Favrin):
Piracy possibly helped Amiga games sales!

Before internet, to swap games people needed to get the games to copy to swap.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 18 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 22-Jul-2004 19:16 GMT
Where you can stick it.

Viruses, disk swapping, clicking drives, disks which won't back up. Is there no end to the whingeing of the Amiga user?

At Power, we want to tell you just where you can stick your disks and worries. In fact, we will show you. The slot in this picture belongs to our PC880 B, the first intelligent disk drive. Insert a disk.

Now you can back it up at lightning speeds using the inbuilt Blitz Amiga hardware, with free software, (even if the disk is Atari or PC). And if your computer has a virus the PC880 B will stop it being written to the bootblock of any of your drives , though you can still save files as normal.

When you do not want these features, switch them off and the PC880 B will sit quietly, without clicking, pretending to be simply an extra drive.

The PC880 B, the only drive to include Blitz Amiga, the Power anti-click device and to combat viruses, is only available direct from Power, priced at just £65.

We have noticed how pricey unintelligent drives are. Perhaps, it's your turn to tell people where to stick it.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 19 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by PimpLoch on 22-Jul-2004 21:10 GMT
In reply to Comment 14 (corpse):
That's no different than on the PC... quite a few groups only release keygens on PC.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 20 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by fhein on 23-Jul-2004 08:06 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Ronald St-Maurice):
Hey, why don't we install video cameras in everybody's home a la 1984? that would get rid of alot of real life crime!
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 21 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Ronald St-Maurice on 23-Jul-2004 09:03 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (fhein):
Hey, why don't we install video cameras in everybody's home a la 1984? that would get rid of alot of real life crime!

How many products from the very few Amiga ISV left were you planning to pirate/steal, mister fhein? ;)

DRM is there because there is a need for it.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 22 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Toner on 23-Jul-2004 17:20 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (Emeric SH):
> I admit, there has been no piracy of the Knights and Merchants MorphOS version
> to my knowledge. I think the 5-6000 (capable to purchase) ppl left in this
> community are not the last line of defense, they the remains of many a great
> wars - so they are supportive to their own, methinks.

Well, some of those left are of the opinion that they are entitled to free stuff, discounts, special privelages etc. in return for their special loyalty to the platform and having gone through so much nonsense the last few years. I expect these guys will still engage in piracy, but at the moment there's so few titles for them to copy and the overall market is now so small that it's hard to say how much piracy is happening.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 23 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by funbird on 24-Jul-2004 08:00 GMT
>5-6000 (capable to purchase) ppl left

haha, good one mate. 500-600 ppl left to purchase is a more realistic estimate
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 24 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Jupp3 on 24-Jul-2004 11:36 GMT
In reply to Comment 16 (Anonymous):
>The music industry could have got legal downloads going much earlier.

Yeah, I guess they were too busy with crippling audio recordings with playb... COPYprotection systems, so that legal customers wouldn't be able to pl... COPY their favourite artists CD's.
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 25 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Alkis Tsapanidis on 24-Jul-2004 13:19 GMT
BTW, yes, it's true until denied... just to follow the same arguementation you
used about MorphOS' legality... :-)
Amiga piracy nearly dead? : Comment 26 of 26ANN.lu
Posted by Johan Rönnblom on 26-Jul-2004 09:24 GMT
I'd certainly never use a system with some sort of integrated DRM. The
basic theory of DRM is "punish your customers". The pirates have no
problem, since they get cracked versions without the DRM limitations.

I have never bought a DRM music CD for example, and I never will.
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