Re: Software Piracy (WAS: Good/bad docs)

[George Mena <George -dot- Mena -at- ESSTECH -dot- COM>]

Here's a concept for you:  The SPA (maybe by proxy) is probably
developing a database of people who could be potential suspects guilty
of software piracy.  Autodesk already has its own anti-piracy legal
group that actively prosecutes pirates of their products and has
recovered at least a few million bucks while sending people to jail for
a few years.

A lot of people charge their book purchases.  Folks like Visa,
MasterCard and American Express keep records of such transactions.
Wouldn't be hard to cut a deal -- complete with non-disclosure
agreements -- for copies of 3rd party book purchases to be compiled and
forwarded to the software companies.  It's not that hard to get software
publisher-friendly copyright legislation passed, given the right
lobbyists and the right amount of financial lubrication.

Remember, folks owning legal copies of the software usually get the
books with the disks and CD-ROMs, even if you buy your software at some
recycled software store.  On the other hand, if you buy *just* the
Microsoft Office 97 CD from such a place and buy a 3rd party manual from
Fry's, you could be made a suspect.

But (!) if you buy the Microsoft Press book to go with Office 97, the
Grand Poobah, Bill Gates, would be satisfied via this cost-reduced
tribute to the company because both CD and book bear the Royal Seal of
Approval: "Microsoft".

If not, it's off with your head time...

On that note, later. :D

George

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Pendleton [SMTP:SPendlet -at- COGNEX -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 1998 10:53 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: Good/bad docs
>
        [George Mena]  snip

>  Was the third-party market originally driven by SW piracy?
> I've assumed that people stole the SW but not the book,
> which the SW vendor naturally wouldn't distribute by itself.
> The millions of people with pirate software then became an
> entrepreneurial opportunity for the publishers of the third-party
> books. The in-house writers now have out-house competitors.
>
> Microsoft has turned this situation on its ear by turning
> the Microsoft Press into a profit center. Back when all books were
> paper and management was horrified by the production cost,
> many of us were pressured to try to regain the costs somehow.
> Only MS seems to have actually made it work. Most bookstores
> sell a whole slew of MS Press books, and most of us own some
> of them. Rather than lose the book profit along with the SW profit,
> MS choose to sell documentation by itself.
>
> Anyone in the SW biz care to comment on the economic
> interaction between in-house and third-party books? Do SW
> vendors hate it because it encourages piracy, or do welcome it
> as a chance to cut costs by reducing the quality of their own
> documentation? Does it harm the in-house writers?
>


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