EAB on ann.lu

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by 7-Zark-7
I suppose they'd regard BTTR a "pirate site" too,despite having permissions from publishers/authors for their stuff.

BTW-To go off-topic slightly, Twist you did mention something I've always been curious about.
What was the situation surrounding Hewson's "ripoff"? I seem to recall Andrew Braybrook,(& Graftgold), mentioning Hewson (& its founder) like a swear word following its collapse. Didn't it get set up a new company called 21st Century or something?

A lot of legal sites get flak because there is a teeming mob of self-appointed warez narcs who haven't the ability to read, that think they are actually helping someone by using a search engine for keywords that might spell L33T. How does one sleep with such a small brain (and d*ck...) ?

To be honest, now that I try to shed some clarity on it all, I have kinda forgotten the Hewson bit. I have read bios from those guys and have even chatted with Steve about the old days. I was gathering up some info for an article for the vapourware zine (Amiga PoV) about Andrew and Steve; somewhere near that time, Cody ended up taking over the publisher/developer research for PoV/HOL, which I was all too happy to relinquish to him! I'll try to dig through my paperwork and find that info for you, though.

Most convos I have had with developers, or bios I have read from the bedroom coder era all tell the same story: the software industry is a wasteland of corporate cannibals who prey on idealistic young creative people with delusions of grandeur. Not unlike the music and publishing world. A sad fact of life. Creative people cannot be bothered with details like education in the business world, making them perfect victims of sleazy suits from the school of business non-ethics.

[CodyJarrett]

Exactly - the bosses and CEOs of companies make large amounts of money from the profits of the companies, because they're knowledgeable about the business side.

They then give the 'employees' terrible pay and sometimes bonuses/pay rises to make it look like they are getting a fair deal, when in fact, it's a tiny percentage of what they get. And they create company rules that you can't talk about salaries without getting sacked.

I hate when CEOs talk about 'their employees' like they owned them. People aren't sheep to be herded by the business.

I've found in the computer business that the people who don't know about computers get all the money - the business leeches; sales people who only care for a sale and a large profit from them, rather than the future implications of their sale; bosses that only care about their large salary; and CEOs who don't have a clue what's happening within the company and even get amazing bonuses for failure.

Now you can see why there is so much corruption in business, which has been recently revealed, but was always there. This also accounts for the fact that most companies are a mess, with no real communication between these self-imposed levels.

In Edge magazine (special Retro issue) Pieter Liepa (author of Boulder Dash) says:

"What I can say is that in hindsight, business then was not very different from any business ever. The people in charge take what the workers make, get as much money as they can for it, lie to the workers about the gross and get as much of it as they can. I know now that, while I made a decent living for the time, I never received a fair percentage of the real profits. I blame myself for not participating more intelligently in the business end. All I can say now is: George Johnson (ex-CEO of publisher Cosmi), kiss my ass!"

[7-Zark-7]

Originally posted by CodyJarrett
Exactly - the bosses and CEOs of companies make large amounts of money from the profits of the companies, because they're knowledgeable about the business side.

They then give the 'employees' terrible pay and sometimes bonuses/pay rises to make it look like they are getting a fair deal, when in fact, it's a tiny percentage of what they get. And they create company rules that you can't talk about salaries without getting sacked.

I hate when CEOs talk about 'their employees' like they owned them. People aren't sheep to be herded by the business.

I've found in the computer business that the people who don't know about computers get all the money - the business leeches; sales people who only care for a sale and a large profit from them, rather than the future implications of their sale; bosses that only care about their large salary; and CEOs who don't have a clue what's happening within the company and even get amazing bonuses for failure.

And no better shining example than Commodore-the latter years?

BTW-Twist, what was Steve Turner like to talk to.
Its ironic in a way-a lot of yearn for the "good old days", when small "cottage industry" programming teams & innovation mostly dominated, & yet when you hear of stories like Abandoned Places 2, or worse, it was amazing that some of the "legendary" coders managed to survive as long as they did,
With all the rip-offs, no wonder most have left the industry.

To this day though, I still feel sorry for Apex software, (Who did Creatures 1 & 2 on the C64). Guys that talanted didn't deserve to be ripped off.

[Twistin'Ghost]

This is actually the topic of an article I was writing about that oh-so-delicate line between publisher and developer. It's an interesting topic that I am not aware of being written about before, in a collective sense. One day, when I have more time...