"Piracy is a Crime" vs. "Copy Protection is Theft"
by Bryce L. Tomlinson
November 26th, 2008
I'm sure you're asking yourself, "What kinda hocus-pocus title is that for a blog?!" As hard as it is for society today to acknowledge that their bootleg copies of Windows and Office, and other programs that perhaps we couldn't afford to buy for our home computers, are a criminal offense under modern law, it is even harder to consider that the very copy protection that is intended to prevent that theft could be theft itself. I'm not a lawyer. I don't pretend to know the fullest extent of law as it pertains to copyright infringement. But as a person who has been transformed by Christ to testify against the sins of software piracy, I have been faced with many challenges. One of those challenges has been the way that software companies make it as difficult as possible for legitimate software owners to remain legitimate.
Let's take for example the obvious: Windows. If you make significant changes to your hardware configuration, like changing the motherboard or the master hard drive, you will most likely be faced with Microsoft's Genuine Advantage software telling you that you're not running "Genuine Windows", because your copy of Windows is registered to another computer. Well, you gotta have Windows, right? So what do you do?
Another fine example might be Alcohol 120%, a CD/DVD recording program by Alcoholsoft. Again, if you change your configuration, even slightly, it thinks of your computer as a different computer. With Alcohol, their web site "allows" you to "unregister" your "old" computer and register your "new" computer. But this process is so complex, and truthfully, so inconsistent (really-half the time it just doesn't even work), it is very frustrating. To add to this, the same programming that makes this so-called protection possible, also makes it so that the underlying drivers that Alcohol requires very often will crash your computer with a "Blue Screen Of Death" (or BSOD) that could cause infinite reboot-loops and the eventual need for the average user to reinstall or "rescue" their operating system. Once you get the computer working again, you might think twice about installing Alcohol again, for fear it will irreparably crash your computer again, which begs the question, "Can someone please tell me again why I paid for this software?" True story. I bought Alcohol 120%. And I can't use it because I bought a bigger hard drive.
Or how about AI RoboForm, an awesome web password management program by Siber Systems? They will allow you to install this program 3 times before you have to pay again for a registration. In my house, I tinker. As some of you who have looked through the software page on AHeartToWitness.com already know, I install a lot of software, sometimes just to try the stuff out. This style of computing can sometimes require frequent reinstallations of the operating system. Every time you reinstall Windows, you've got to reinstall the programs. So it wasn't too long before I had used up all my 3 installations of RoboForm, and it's a program I've come to depend on. In fact, since Roboform encrypts all the passwords it stores, and I couldn't reinstall it, I couldn't even access the passwords that I had backed up. So what does one do?
Do these overkill approaches to copy protection amount to stealing? It can sometimes feel that way. Do your basic human, or "civil", rights extend to your computer? In most cases, sadly, you find the answer is a pompous "NO."
While my expertise is not necessarily in the "letter of the law," I do know one thing. No matter what copy protection you put on your program, if someone wants to copy or crack it, they just will. Sort of like putting "SEE ID" on your credit card, it's something that largely goes unchecked, and if someone wants to steal, they are gonna steal.
Game sites such as RealArcade and Reflexive have proven that you don't have to focus on copy protection to turn a massive profit. Cabel Sasser of Panic.com made the observation that when they released Coda, a web development tool for the Mac, a serial number was enough. He noted that once in a great while, you find a serial number that's had mass distribution on pirate sites, and you blacklist that one. Panic decided not to spend huge resources on copy protection at the expense of making users pull their hair out if they've decided to upgrade their Mac and need to reinstall the software. As a result, their users are loyal. And their profits are up.
In the end, elaborate copy protections like the ones used in Windows, Alcohol, and RoboForm eventually end up with one of three results: (1) The user has to buy another license, usually at the full original price tag, (2) The user stops using the software or (3) The user cracks the software so they can continue using it, essentially "criminalizing" a legal license holder.
So beyond asking hypothetical or unanswerable questions, we need practical solutions for the situations that we are in, right?
In the case of Microsoft, you have very few options but to buy another license. If you plan to continue using Windows, MS has a way of making it nearly impossible to get around their Genuine Advantage software, to the point where even if you did find a way to crack Windows' security measures, you will eventually be faced with another situation where you are told you're not running Genuine Windows, mostly when it's time to use Windows Update. In my house, I almost went broke buying copies of Windows for every computer I had. I have resolved that I will not be upgrading to Vista, mostly because of the overprotectiveness of the GA software. I will be making the slow transition to the Mac and to Linux.
It is bad enough that software pirates have long used the price of software as their primary excuse for stealing software. It is worse when that excuse becomes the truth. We don't need the situation exacerbated by software companies making you buy the software more than once on the same computer.
As for Alcohol, I have since found that there are many fully capable FREEWARE burning programs that will do the same or better job. They can be found on the software page at AHeartToWitness.com.
For RoboForm, I found out that version 4.6.8 is the last freeware version, and can also be found on the software page at AHeartToWitness.com.
For myself, I have found very few instances where there has not been some freeware alternative to software which I would have had to purchase, perhaps more than once. This is my way of "fighting the good fight". I'm personally tired of software companies using piracy as an excuse to "steal" from legal software consumers.
This opinion, and this published material, is the copyrighted work and property of Bryce L. Tomlinson, and cannot be reprinted or redistributed without permission.
November 26th, 2008
I'm sure you're asking yourself, "What kinda hocus-pocus title is that for a blog?!" As hard as it is for society today to acknowledge that their bootleg copies of Windows and Office, and other programs that perhaps we couldn't afford to buy for our home computers, are a criminal offense under modern law, it is even harder to consider that the very copy protection that is intended to prevent that theft could be theft itself. I'm not a lawyer. I don't pretend to know the fullest extent of law as it pertains to copyright infringement. But as a person who has been transformed by Christ to testify against the sins of software piracy, I have been faced with many challenges. One of those challenges has been the way that software companies make it as difficult as possible for legitimate software owners to remain legitimate.
Let's take for example the obvious: Windows. If you make significant changes to your hardware configuration, like changing the motherboard or the master hard drive, you will most likely be faced with Microsoft's Genuine Advantage software telling you that you're not running "Genuine Windows", because your copy of Windows is registered to another computer. Well, you gotta have Windows, right? So what do you do?
Another fine example might be Alcohol 120%, a CD/DVD recording program by Alcoholsoft. Again, if you change your configuration, even slightly, it thinks of your computer as a different computer. With Alcohol, their web site "allows" you to "unregister" your "old" computer and register your "new" computer. But this process is so complex, and truthfully, so inconsistent (really-half the time it just doesn't even work), it is very frustrating. To add to this, the same programming that makes this so-called protection possible, also makes it so that the underlying drivers that Alcohol requires very often will crash your computer with a "Blue Screen Of Death" (or BSOD) that could cause infinite reboot-loops and the eventual need for the average user to reinstall or "rescue" their operating system. Once you get the computer working again, you might think twice about installing Alcohol again, for fear it will irreparably crash your computer again, which begs the question, "Can someone please tell me again why I paid for this software?" True story. I bought Alcohol 120%. And I can't use it because I bought a bigger hard drive.
Or how about AI RoboForm, an awesome web password management program by Siber Systems? They will allow you to install this program 3 times before you have to pay again for a registration. In my house, I tinker. As some of you who have looked through the software page on AHeartToWitness.com already know, I install a lot of software, sometimes just to try the stuff out. This style of computing can sometimes require frequent reinstallations of the operating system. Every time you reinstall Windows, you've got to reinstall the programs. So it wasn't too long before I had used up all my 3 installations of RoboForm, and it's a program I've come to depend on. In fact, since Roboform encrypts all the passwords it stores, and I couldn't reinstall it, I couldn't even access the passwords that I had backed up. So what does one do?
Do these overkill approaches to copy protection amount to stealing? It can sometimes feel that way. Do your basic human, or "civil", rights extend to your computer? In most cases, sadly, you find the answer is a pompous "NO."
While my expertise is not necessarily in the "letter of the law," I do know one thing. No matter what copy protection you put on your program, if someone wants to copy or crack it, they just will. Sort of like putting "SEE ID" on your credit card, it's something that largely goes unchecked, and if someone wants to steal, they are gonna steal.
Game sites such as RealArcade and Reflexive have proven that you don't have to focus on copy protection to turn a massive profit. Cabel Sasser of Panic.com made the observation that when they released Coda, a web development tool for the Mac, a serial number was enough. He noted that once in a great while, you find a serial number that's had mass distribution on pirate sites, and you blacklist that one. Panic decided not to spend huge resources on copy protection at the expense of making users pull their hair out if they've decided to upgrade their Mac and need to reinstall the software. As a result, their users are loyal. And their profits are up.
In the end, elaborate copy protections like the ones used in Windows, Alcohol, and RoboForm eventually end up with one of three results: (1) The user has to buy another license, usually at the full original price tag, (2) The user stops using the software or (3) The user cracks the software so they can continue using it, essentially "criminalizing" a legal license holder.
So beyond asking hypothetical or unanswerable questions, we need practical solutions for the situations that we are in, right?
In the case of Microsoft, you have very few options but to buy another license. If you plan to continue using Windows, MS has a way of making it nearly impossible to get around their Genuine Advantage software, to the point where even if you did find a way to crack Windows' security measures, you will eventually be faced with another situation where you are told you're not running Genuine Windows, mostly when it's time to use Windows Update. In my house, I almost went broke buying copies of Windows for every computer I had. I have resolved that I will not be upgrading to Vista, mostly because of the overprotectiveness of the GA software. I will be making the slow transition to the Mac and to Linux.
It is bad enough that software pirates have long used the price of software as their primary excuse for stealing software. It is worse when that excuse becomes the truth. We don't need the situation exacerbated by software companies making you buy the software more than once on the same computer.
As for Alcohol, I have since found that there are many fully capable FREEWARE burning programs that will do the same or better job. They can be found on the software page at AHeartToWitness.com.
For RoboForm, I found out that version 4.6.8 is the last freeware version, and can also be found on the software page at AHeartToWitness.com.
For myself, I have found very few instances where there has not been some freeware alternative to software which I would have had to purchase, perhaps more than once. This is my way of "fighting the good fight". I'm personally tired of software companies using piracy as an excuse to "steal" from legal software consumers.
This opinion, and this published material, is the copyrighted work and property of Bryce L. Tomlinson, and cannot be reprinted or redistributed without permission.
posted by A Heart To Witness at 11/26/2008 07:47:00 AM
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