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Reply 21 of 56, by MiniMax

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And what was it used for?

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Reply 24 of 56, by Dominus

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Wow, intentionally putting bad sectors in a floppy as a means of copy protection. Isnt that against the law? I mean, imagine if now hard drives came with bad sectors to ensure people are not gonna copy warez into them, or if DVD recorders intentionally write bad sectors for that purpose.

How would it be against the law? And since you are the OP, you do know the history of the copy protections of games that were made for Windows 32-Bit? Most of the games then and I think most now still have the bad sector thing going on with the CD/DVD-Roms to verify that this is the original disk...

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Reply 25 of 56, by MiniMax

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v0g0ns wrote:

MiniMax, what is Sweden? What it's good for?

I will answer that if you can promise me that your line questions is relevant for thread.

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Reply 27 of 56, by MiniMax

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And how would it be defective?

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Reply 29 of 56, by vasyl

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And how would it be defective?

'cause a bad sector is a defect, technically 😉
It's amusing to see how two kinds of distributions existed in late 80s/early 90s -- in one case you would get a warning that disks are copy-protected, in the other the first page of the manual would instruct you to make a backup copy a.s.a.p.

Reply 30 of 56, by MiniMax

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You just don't get it, don't you?

The diskettes were a sold as a medium for DELIVERING the game to you. It was not sold to you as a GENERAL diskette that you could use any way you like. And for that PURPOSE the diskette worked PERFECTLY. And, in case the diskette didn't work, you would send it back to the publisher and you would get a replacement.

Saying that is was defective, saying that it should be illegal, is like saying that it should be illegal for a car dealer to sell the BMW MINI because it technically can not be used to transport a full-size bookshelf.

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Reply 31 of 56, by ADDiCT

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Oh please, no "car comparisons" - they suck, and are very inaccurate normaly (;

A discussion about the legal implications of "purposely defective media" is completely pointless, because a) we're not lawyers (at least i think we have no lawyers here), b) the legal status would be very, very different in different countries, and c) written law actually hasn't very much to do with common sense, or a subjective perspective on what's "wrong" or "right". A common saying for law experts is "law is not justice" (sounds better in german, but the meaning should be clear).

Reply 32 of 56, by MiniMax

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Hold your horses. I am not yet ready to discuss whether it is illegal or not. Please don't hate me because I go about this in a logical way.

First I want to determine if the diskettes/floppies were perfectly suited for their intended purpose or not.

Yes or No?
Suited or Not?

A very simple question.

If the answer is Yes/Suited, then we can end the discussion right here and now.

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Reply 34 of 56, by v0g0ns

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I would say they were not suited for their intended purpose, because if they were defective, then no good backup copies could be made out of them. And in some cases they could have problems with your floppy disk reader because of the defective sectors. So yea, i'd say it's some sort of "sabotaging" the media as a mean of copy protection.

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Reply 35 of 56, by MiniMax

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Defective sectors is a fact of life. Your newest SATA harddisk is full of defective sectors. That is why you format a disk so the computer can make a map out of the good and bad sectors.

I see that you are now extending the purpose beyond distributing the game. You are including the ability to make a working copy of the diskette. But if, as I claim, you could ask for replacement diskette from the publisher, then there would be no need for you to make a backup.

Agreed, such a promise is not worth half a penny these days, if the publisher has gone under and disappeared 🙁

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Reply 36 of 56, by v0g0ns

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Exactly why is important to make a backup copy for personal use. And yes, SATA drives have defective sectors (although i havent run into any yet), but they were not intentionally placed there, unlike the defective sectors in the floppy disks, as a mean of copy protection.

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