Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Copy protection and music software

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:8/9/2000; 8:52:32 PM
Topic:Copy protection and music software
Msg #:19618 (In response to 19617)
Prev/Next:19617 / 19619

When I spoke to reps of some of those companies bitching about the copy protection (I worked at a store that sold music hardware and software at the time, and ended up doing a lot of handholding), they said that said that musicians couldn't be trusted, and that when they sold unprotected software musicians had the gonads to call them for tech support on pirated software.

First, in my experience, from the 80s, selling Mac software, musicians *are* unapologetic pirates.

The other side of the story about copy protection is that we knew that when we took the protection off a lot of people who were paying would not pay. We were selling total end-user software and the bump of copy protection kept a lot of people honest. The people who were clamoring for removal of the protection were the professional users in corporations. They argued, persuasively, that they were paying for the software, and didn't care about our business issues, the copy protection was a pain the butt for them.

Today I tell the reporters that I talk to that the software industry survived it, but I don't know if it really did. At that time you could run a nice smallish business making end user software. Whether the shakeout that followed had anything to do with cp, no one will ever know. But a few years later, all that was left was Microsoft and Lotus and AutoCad, Adobe, etc. The small companies for the most part were swept away.

I felt we were lucky to get out when we did, we were caught in a really tough bind.

Anyway to people who think I have no empathy for the music execs, I do, I'm glad I'm not in their shoes! On the other hand, as a user of music, I'm glad to be in my shoes.

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