Hi John,

I would not help a software pirate. But how do you know when they come and ask a question?

How can you make sure someone is a registered user when they ask for help?

If they can lie about their non-purchase of a product, they can certainly lie about the fact that they are registered so I voted "no" on both of those questions. This would have to involve PG Music and they would have to spend the time and effort to make sure everyone who said they are a registered user actually was a registered user. A simple e-mail check wouldn't do since many people have multiple e-mail accounts.

I've heard the argument and I suppose some software pirates will eventually buy the product, and I'm sure others do not. I can't rationalize the fact that some do eventually buy it to approve the practice. PG Music offers a perfectly good demo of the product for those who are curious, and when they ask me about it, I always refer them to PG Music and recommend that they download the demo.

On the other hand, I get some very curious people who really want to know about BiaB before they buy. I guess they choose to ask me questions because I am not PG Music or perhaps because they think I wrote BiaB (I wish I did). I always help them as much as I can and then direct them to PG Music and suggest they download the demo.

I'm often amazed at people who don't think twice about stealing someone else's software, and yet go ballistic if someone stole a song they wrote or anything else. What happened to "do unto others"?

Unfortunately there is no way to copy protect software without punishing the legitimate users. A company has to make that decision and more often than not, they go without copy protection.

An example of punishment. I bought a multi-fx pedal for my guitar a year or so ago. It came with a free copy of Cubase LE. The Cubase LE came with a "software dongle" which seriously affected my computer in a negative way even when I wasn't trying to run Cubase. It locked things up, made all my MIDI programs non-functional, and wouldn't even load Cubase LE correctly. Fortunately I made a "Ghost" disk image of my hard drive before I installed it, and was able to revert back to the pre-installation condition.

I really was curious about Cubase since my preferred sequencer was purchased by another company who introduced bugs in it back in 04 and they still haven't gotten all of them out. Thanks to the lame Cubase LE copy protection scheme, I won't even consider buying Cubase. That's the peril of using copy protection. True you won't have as many pirates, but on the other hand, there are potential legitimate users that will not buy your product. Which is worse?

So what's the answer? I wish I knew. If I did, I'd patent it and make some serious money.

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
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