CompuServe Messages

Wayne: One problem with prosecuting the original source, you have to prove that the original source GAVE AWAY a copy of the program, rather than they were the victims of theft that they didn't even know about. I don't know about you, but if I buy some program for lots of money, I'm not about to give it away to anyone! However I know of at least one occasion where programs were copied from my machine without my knowledge (at the time), because I have several friends that also have Amigas, and sometimes they'll come over to help me out by watching my daughter while I go out, usually they will end up playing with my machine in one way or the other, and once one of my friends was interested in a program I'd just bought, and so copied it to floppies (or they might have actually copied the original floppies, I really don't know), and after setting it up on their machine and deciding that they liked it, they went out and bought their own copy anyway, so in this case nobody was hurt, but the point is, Am I supposed to lockup my machine every time walk out the door? The original purchaser of the program isn't always the one to blame, I'd say that probably it's usually the #2 person that should have the major portion of the blame if they took it without the machine owners knowledge. Unfortunately my very words are more proof that dongles do serve a purpose, however there could just as easily be software dongles, like many of the disabled shareware that gets distributed on CIS. I hate dongles, and I don't have any on any of my machines, but I think it would be wrong to put ALL the blame on the original purchaser of the software. // -Mike Schiller \X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale