In article <45AE180C.28494.1CAC23DF at cclist.sydex.com>,
"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes:
I don't buy that "most" software is
encumbered by software protection-
-unless the author is talking about games. Even so, much of the=20
early software protection is easy to hack. What concerns me more is=20
modern software that requires activation via the internet to run.=20
When companies disappear (as they are wont to do), the user is left=20
with no recourse.
As with copy protection in the past, activation protection will be
reverse engineered and patched out in order to keep abandonware
running -- assuming people care enough to do the work. Now, what's
really important is to keep the bits archived, even if they are
license locked. Eventually someone may care and by then having the
archived bits is what will count.
[...] True, the DC-xxxx carts are=20
starting to have problems, but in most cases, this was used as=20
backup, not a distribution medium.
The big exception here seems to be the workstation market. QIC was
used as the primary distribution medium for the ESV, for instance.
In many cases, the problem is=20
with the aging rubber in the drive, not the medium itself.
I thought people had reported problems with QIC medium recently?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>