Re: Executing Encrypted Code

[Omegaman <omega@bigeasy.com>]

On Fri, 20 Dec 1996, Peter Hendrickson wrote:

> (Of course, it is not out of the question that piracy boosts sales by
> advertising the product.  We haven't seen a good experiment for
> determining this.)

There's this little game called "Doom" that was released for free a few
years back.  pay your $$$ and you got to continue the game.  A couple hot
shot programmers in Texas apparently made quite a bit of money off of this.
Of course, the game was top-notch for its time


> Your characterization is accurate.  Ignoring the particulars of this
> scheme, it would certainly be neat if people could sell software
> without it being pirated.

They can.  Models such as the one above and free software provide one
alternative.  Companies make their money on a value added basis and from
corporations willing to pay proper license fees.  

Placing the kind of limitations you are envisioning upon hardware would be
ultimately harmful to the growth of an industry which has always relied on
innovation from "amateurs" on the outside of commercial circles.  
Furthermore, quality free applications and shareware applications
represent a challenge to commercial firms to produce better software that
customers are willing to pay for.  

me
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 Omegaman <mailto:omega@bigeasy.com> 
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