Editorial Office
11 Davis Drive
Belmont, CA 94002
Dear Frederic Davis:
We share the sentiments about software piracy that you expressed in the February issue of A+, page 12. It is one of the major problems now facing the industry. However, please don't point a finger at us. You go too far when you claim that Stanford Macintosh User's Group "distributed copies of 'Loderunner' software." This is ludicrous.
As a user's group we sit on both sides of the fence: We serve to bring the developer and user community together for their mutual benefit. It is important ti we preserve a reputation of looking out for interests of both. To be able to work closely with local developers they must trust that we will respect the proprietariness of their software. As a consequence we take pains to prevent abuses in duplicating software.
If you were familiar with how this group is run you would realize how ridiculous your accusation is.
At our meetings we have developers present software they have written. No one presents commercial software or even brings to a meeting they haven't developed. The club distributes public domain software at meetings. We don't allow any other sales or exchanges. Neither we nor the University would countenance our meetings being used for distributing commercial software or for other questionable purposes.
You've done us a disservice by spreading a rumor that is not true. We look forward to reading a more careful and informed A+ magazine in the future.
Sincerely,
John M. Agosta