#Upscale Piracy
11 messages in this thread
I'd like all developers to know about an Amiga "software rental" company…
Their address is "Rent-A-Disc, Frederick Bldg. #222, Huntington, WV 25701".
The phone number is (304) 529-3232. They are advertising in AmigaWorld.
They've got an extensive list of all the most popular games and products on
the Amiga, as well as C-64 titles. Typical rental fees are less than ten
dollars. Upscale piracy, I'd call it. Does anyone know of any precedents
that can be used to close down a place like this? If nothing else, I'd
like this message spread far and wide – NOT so more people give money to
this company – but so there might be a concerted effort on the part of
Amiga developers to work against this company.
I believe either SPA or ADAPSO has successfully prosecuted "Rental"
companies in the past and I'd recommend that they be contacted. The lawyers
are always hunting for a good "show case" that looks good in the news.
The current precedent is that software rental is perfectly legal.
Unless the company actively encourages software theft, or implies that you
can copy the disk 'for your own' or some such….or if the rent software
where the license specificaly prohibts the purchaser from charging a fee
for use of the software (read: renting the software) or some such legalise
that makes rental of that specific package illegal….then I know of
nothing that can be done.
Yeah, I can believe that… Looks like I'll change my license. I don't
like the looks of software rental places. It seems like a front for piracy
to me. Software is too easy to copy. Also, how can you "rent" something
like my company's Object Disks? If someone rents it to render a few of the
objects, and then returns it, OK. But I'll bet a lot of the people who
"rent" this stuff just keep a copy. Very often, pirates do have trouble
finding someone with the latest software, and this place gives them an
opportunity.
Yup, I'm sure, intentional or not, that many rental places are used to
get cheap software. With programs like Maurader II (and it's clones) around
and freely available Xerox machines….it would be a simple task to rent a disk
for a day and make a copy.
Don
I agree with you that software rental operations are probably primary
resource for pirates. But the do point to a sorely needed facility in the
software market. When I go into a book store I can leaf through a book I'm
interested in and read a few passages in it. When I go into a car
dealership I can take the car out for a test drive to see if I like it. But
when I walk into a computer store intending to buy a package, I have to buy
it before I can try it out! Now that – to me – is unfair business
practice. What if I'm not satisfied? What if I don't like it? I should be
able to try out software before I buy it. That's why software rental
places have their legal justification.
Do most dealers refuse to let you try the software in the store? I thought
most do. I know that some places have shrink-wrap machines, so they can
put it back on the shelf without anyone noticing. I'd say, don't buy it if
you haven't seen a demo or tryed it yourself. On the other hand, some
people abuse this priviledge, and go to a dealer to see the product, then
order mail order. then who's screwed?
We have one (small) store not too far from here that rents Amiga software. I
stopped by once, and I didn't see anything interesting. They have the
distinction, though, of being the cheapest source of Fish disks in the city.
For that alone I would applaud them. (I don't see why a Fish disk should cost
more than $3.00).
There are two Amiga dealers near me. One sells software. They'll open
the packages so you can read the docs, but won't let you run it. (This
kept me from buying Metacomco's Lisp once.) The other reserves one copy of
every piece of software they sell as a demo, and has a bunch of machines in
the back to try them out. (20% below list, too!) The only restriction is
that if they see you coming in to try out software a lot, and not buying
anything, they'll stop letting you try out software. I spent a couple of
hours one day going through every home finance program they had before
deciding on Phasar. Its the RIGHT way to sell software. They have a very
satisfied customer. (And a repeat customer, and word of mouth advertising,
which is not unimportant in a business.)
In Vancouver a couple of places like this were raided, charged with
copyright violations, and I'm pretty sure convicted. They were using a
little different scheme though. They rented the software to you for $5
complete with Xeroxed documentation. There was no requirement to bring the
disk back even. If you liked it you kept it. They were done on the
photocopied documents though rather than the disks.