Hamfests
I'm glad to hear that it doesn't happen in Maryland, but I did watch
thousands of dollars in sales taking place, without a dime going to the
rightful copyright holders. One person even told me he felt he was doing a
valuable public service. He was providing quality software at a reasonable
price. He knew he was doing something wrong, but "no software company is
going to catch me." Incidentially, I know it's not just the Amiga.
Actually, since the Amiga has a fairly large user base, and is growing
daily, it's not all that painful. Enough honest people buy their software
to allow most publishers with several titles to pay the bills every month.
It's much more serious on the Atari ST. That user base has remained
stagnant for years due to Atari not marketing the ST in the US. I can tell
you that within 48 hours of releasing a new game, I can find it on any one
of a number of pirate boards I keep my eye on. The product will sell
initially, then after about 6 weeks, it's on all the pirate boards and the
sales dry up.