@JaXanim:
well said!
I know it's a touchy issue, the issue of piracy, and I think both sides have very good points, but my personal opinion leans on JaXanim's side, because in the end realistic points of view have to take precedence. I've written commerical software, and the issue of piracy always came up, but having been part of the "scene" when I was a kid, I realized the futility of trying to protect the software. So I/we opted for no protection. In fact, after a point I was happy to see my software in pirate sites, because as JaXanim said: it wasn't dead! After sometime the obvious came through: if you want people to buy your software, you make it really really valuable and good (plenty of good, useful features), and NOT by adding traps. Traps will always be broken. Sometimes it's too easy (I won't go into details).
Now taking this to the Amiga world, and once again this is my opinion only but I believe it's shared by many. What killed Amiga wasn't software piracy. It is and has always been one reason: the stupidest corporation ever: Commodore. The reasons are simple: look at Commodore's history and how they handled the situtation and their GOLD, because they practically had gold in their hands! (
:rtfm:
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/ <- if the author is around here and reads these forums, congrats, awesome site!) To further understand that it wasn't piracy, look at the software trends for Amiga. Companies didn't suddenly stop making software while Commodore had its brains in its head and wasn't dead. No. They stopped AFTER Commodore practically dropped dead. Of course there was "hope" that someone else would take over Commodore's role, and that's why many game companies continued making software (ex: Team17, Psygnosis, etc), but slowly their hope also dwindled and died (like ours). Then they all stopped. The Wintel platform was much more attractive and sadly the Mac had also withered down, having lost their vision and Steve Jobs.
And now my opinion on how to "protect the Amiga software": make new software. More and newer software. What Amiga needs, is not protecting the old. What it needs is new software, bringing features from the state of the art platforms (this will sound like a joke, but it's true that they have advanced since 1993: Windblows and of course the very advanced Mac OS X). And please believe me that it's NOT impossible. What I mean is, at least personally as a programmer, I have seen through the years of maturing (heh, yeah right!) that after I look back in time, I can do many of the things I can do today even on my old 8bit computers and even better, but only now that I have the foresight. So, basically most advanced software features (random example: CDROM/DVD burning) can be back-ported to older platforms, using tricks like smarter caching and buffering and supporting new technologies which didn't exist back then, such as "Burn Proof". To make it short: Amiga needs new (or ported) software. That is the only way to "protect the Amiga heritage". If you want to think of a parallel, think of countries with aging populations. All experts agree, unilaterally, that the only way to save the country is by having more kids, not by protecting the old via drugs and medicinal science, because in the end: they will die, no matter what. With the Amiga, the old software will die (not necessarily bit-rot, but functionality wise) or become boring, no matter what.
Lastly, JaXanim makes a very good point: how will Amiga survive into new generations if software is impossible to find? The new comers won't even give it a glance if they realize (and it's very easy) that there's no way to "get a taste" without investing so much (low barrier of entry). This is critical. I've had personal experience with this and other platforms. And if I didn't interact, I would have never had enough time to realize its worth. Similarly, all these "emu wave" kids are looking for new games to check out and play, and they have HUNDREDS of platforms to choose from. If Amiga isn't one of them, well, how does that help the Amiga world with new blood? It doesn't. And the old Amiga blood is dying, unfortunately...
There comes a point when written law has no positive value anymore...
Long Live Amiga!
