>Subject: Re: Perfect GP2
>Date: Mon, 06 Jan 1997 15:36:56 GMT
>On Mon, 06 Jan 1997 09:12:55 -0500, Keith Meyer
>>You should boycott it because it contains stuff that is freely availble
>>on the net - there is no need to pay someone for it. Especially since
>>all the stuff is developed by other people, who are receiving no
>>compensation from the company selling this package. If it's not
>>blatantly illegal, it's certainly unethical as hell...
>Now I don't make a habit of defending other company's practices (heck,
>I have enough trouble defending my own :-) ), and I must admit to not
>having seen this package to evaluate the marketing on it, but there
>are legitimate reasons for sellings CDs of material freely available
>on the net. (Anyone seen the numerous Linux distributions to take
>probably the most common example? How many people bought the demo
>version of Descent, Doom, etc in stores instead of downloading it from
>the net?)
>Not everyone has a fast and free net connection, nor the time to go
>hunt down all of the numerous little utilities and download them. (You
>appear to, and can CHOOSE not to buy this thing, but others might not
>have the same net.access and might like to buy this pack.)
>If this upgrade pack (or whatever it's called) is not being
>misrepresented as an official MicroProse product, and has some
>indication that it is a collection of utilities written by third
>parties for use with GP2, then I don't personally see the problem.
>---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus, but voicing my own opinion, and not the
>official company line.
Good luck to them! No offense but the software IS available for free. They
stick to all the rules like leaving the original auhors details and stuff and
they can certainly sell it.
I've seen cd compilations of Doom and quake and others. All freeware or share
but with ALL the original legal bits and all for sale by the 'compiler' of
the disk. No offense to the original poster, but it's pretty smart thinking.
We often delude ourselves when we think everyone who has a computer is net
enabled. Costly mistake for some companies. Money making oppurtunities for
others. If the original authors are offended, then they hav eto ensure every
ciopy is removed from the net and take legal action against the compiler. But
since none of these authors distributed their software with the shareware
clause (ie use this for x days and after which either send x dollars to me or
remove the software as you would be in breach of copyright or whatever. All
the software was given away free.
Ashraf