Like many other microcomputer owners, I despair frequently at the length of time spent on loading software from cassette.
I own a CBM 64 and have been contemplating the move to disk for some time now. However, after reading several reviews of the 1541 disk drive, which is the drive recommended by Commodore for CBM 64 owners, I now wonder whether it is worth the extra expense, and what alternatives I have in the sub-£300 market.
According to published figures the average time to load a typical 16K program from cassette is five minutes. This figure only reduces to approximately 42 seconds using the 1541 disk drive. How on earth is retrieval from disk this slow?
There are several utility programs on the market which enable Commodore owners to reduce their tape load/save times. One from Supersoft decreases tape save/load times by a factor of seven, as fast as the 1541.
Unfortunately, presumably like the other utilities, it can only be used on software that had already been saved using the cartridge.
This brings me to my second criticism, that old chestnut of software piracy. To be able to use such a utility I would have to infringe copyright by taking backup copies of my favourite tape-based software.
This is obviously highly desirable as, for instance, I could then load The Hobbit in two minutes instead of 15. Copyright exists to protect the author from losing the proceeds of his/her hard work, however, I see no reason why the taking of backup copies on either disk/tape for one's own personal use should technically be a criminal act. In any case I would have thought that the sale of any software that enables you to copy protected software is in itself illegal, because it is inciting people to perform a criminal act.
Further, how many programs published in magazines/books are breaking copyright because they use routines 'lifted' from other programs? I have picked up several ideas/techniques from other people's programs. Is it illegal to use these routines, or even use the ideas behind these routines suitably modified?
Is it also illegal to publish work which has used, say, an assembler or compiler marketed by someone else to produce it?
The whole area of copyright in computer software needs revieweing and defining explictly. We all believe the author(s) of software should receive the full rewards of their work, but it is the full scale pirating that is causing the problem. It is about time some firm guidelines were published to clear the matter up once and for all.
3rd March 1984
