WineHQ should discourage the use of cracks

[Zachary Goldberg]

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 9:02 AM, Vit Hrachovy <vit.hrachovy at sandbox.cz> wrote:
> Dan Kegel wrote:
>  >>  "Gold: Application works flawlessly with some DLL overrides or other
>  >>  settings, etc. Copy protection issues are not considered as issues here."
>  >
>  > Sorry, that doesn't do it for me.  Apps that need cracks are simply
>  > not convenient or safe enough to merit a gold rating, IMHO.
>  > - Dan
>
>  O.K. So I don't agree with Your opinion.
>
>  Gold means for me the application works for me as I expect it to work.

>
>  Copy protection is for me just an obstacle to skip through - I crack all
>  the legal SW I've bought, because I need comfort using the application,
>  not being whipped up by stupid DRM.
>

That opinion unfortunatly is not one a community which may be in the
legal line of site can take.  Dan mentioned before that a large number
of Wine's devs are in the US and in the US using such tactics are
illegal.  The Wine community should respect that, even if it may mean
hindering some usability in the short term.

In an ideal world I agree with you, I am also of the opinion that 'I
bought the software, let me use it on any OS i please'.  However, if
something like copy protection prevents such a thing and the only way
around it use to use a technique deemed illegal by our government we
have no choice but to comply as a community or face really a rather
expensive legal battle.  That doesn't mean we can't make a fuss about
it; attempt to change such a law civilly but in the short term, life's
tough.

>  My priority is SW FUNCTIONALITY.
>
>  For copy protection functionalities we shall then have separate entries
>  in AppDB - as I'm interested in my app functionality, not its DRM.
>
>  I'm happy with the current AppDB state - AppDB is for users, not for
>  patent holders.
>

Sadly in this world we have to always be conscious of both.

>  Regards
>  Vit
>
>
>

Also, +1 to dan's arguement about modifying the definitions of
Gold/Platinum.  Gold should really imply works out of the box with
minor gaps in functionality or crashes, NOT works with overrides +
cracks.  Platinum should imply works out of the box no excuses 100%
working.

I'm also intruiged by the idea of specially flagging apps that work
but need overrides / cracks; if properly thought out that might be a
reasonable solution as well.


-- 
Zachary Goldberg
Computer Science & Engineering
Electrical Captain of Penn Electric Race Team
School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania