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Originally Posted by Sociable
An intersting aspect of this whole debate is, of course, the part that hardware manufacturers and Internet providers have played and will continue to play.
Hands up anyone that would have brought a cassette recorder if it were not for its ability to copy from radio records CD's etc etc.
Same applies to ISP's just how many people would sign up for broadband if it was not possible to gain access to content and download it.
As for MicroSuck I have no sympathy for them as IMHO the anti-trust cases should have been dealt with by the courts making them upgrade all customers who paid for earlier versions that didn't do what they were meant to FOC.
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Have to agree, Sociable. In the 'bad old days', the software industry bleated about floppy disk piracy but manufacturers still brought out hardware and software that could by-pass protection on other companies' disks and used that as a selling point.
We were told that software piracy would end when CDs came in but what happened..the hardware manufacturers sold CD writers to the public allowing piracy to continue and the same thing looks likely when DVDs replace CDs as the common form of storage.
We were also told that costs would come down but that hasn't been the case and games when they first come out are still very expensive. This doesn't excuse people from downloading games, music etc but it does give an insight into the 'ripped off' feeling that the public is experiencing.
As for Microsoft,the number of bugs in their software surely must make it 'not of merchantable quality'. I'd love to see one version of Windows that doesn't have a bug or security vulnerability in it. I'd also like to see one OS that is totally backward compatible with DOS 6.22 so I can play all the old games, which my current 'more advanced' machine can't play.