Abstract
The headline in the New York Times was clear, "Pirated Copies of Latest
Software From IBM, Others Posted on the Internet" (NYT 10/31/94). The
ramifications were simple: the market for a new computer program can
be quickly destroyed if it is posted on the Internet. Most new programs
will enjoy at least a six month marketing "shelf life". But a million
dollar computer program created on Monday, stolen and uploaded to the
Internet on Tuesday, can be worthless by Friday. The victim-author
programmer may not even know his new, "heater" program now resides on a
publicly accessible, anonymous file server in France. Nevertheless, his
(and your) projected six month marketing window has now shrunk to four
days.
