KR> i go for anybody who will be around for more than a month, i install
KR> all my own stuff, and if it lasts 4 weeks, it will probably last for
KR> ever. i mostly buy from a chinese couple out the back of chatswood
KR> who's house is packed with pc stuff, i don't know how they live there,
KR> theres even a fax machine on the draining board. the rest of the stuff
KR> i get from another chinese who brings stuff direct from hong kong.

RS> Found anyone flogging direct copys of CDROMs ?

KR> no, but i hear that there are people around sydney selling such things.

 RS> Yeah, apparently the market type situation has them
 RS> tho they are a bit careful about what is on display.

if i were them, i'd probably keep a profile lower than a snakes belly, the
software police will jump hard on anybody doing it commercially. i think
that most are amateurs trying to make a buck out of thier cd-r boxes. there
may be a few of the shonkier yum-chas in the act too, but i don't think
that they will last long.

KR> they are usually burnt to order on cd-r equipment. i haven't seen any
KR> "commercial" attempts at such forgery, all the chinese disks that i
KR> have seen have been anthologies, some with $20k odd worth of software.

 RS> OK, wonder why they dont just go the whole hog and copy
 RS> the normal distribution CDs of the full commercial stuff.

dont know, the ones that i have seen have been the nitty gritty of the
commerial distributions. most of the commercial stuff has 100 megs or less
of actual product on a disk with the rest made up of fonts, clip art, or
the like.

KR> it looks like now russia is becoming the centre of this activity,

 RS> Yeah, main problem with that tho is just getting mail order type
 RS> addresses etc.

i don't think that mail order was ever a possibility, most operations
worked on a market stall basis. i saw golden arcade back before the cd rom
days, little stalls with no name, just a display book of programs and a pc
behind a curtain to copy the disks. 6 months ago, i am told, these stalls
were displaying just the paper inserts from the cds, they were fetched from
elsewhere on purchase. i immagine that the russians would be even harder to
deal with. the chinese cds arent of the highest quality either, most have
bad spots.

KR> with even the merchants of the imfamous golden
KR> arcade in hong kong getting very cagey.

 RS> Dunno, havent had anyone try that lately, last few months etc.

my latest info is about 4 weeks old.


                        keith
@EOT:

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