'Display Eater' writer admits hollow threat

THE WRITER of the Apple software Display Eater has admitted that his licence contained a hollow threat when it threatened to destroy the personal file of any one who installed it with a dodgy code number.

On Friday we wrote how Karsten Kusche, who works for another Apple software maker Briksoftware, discovered that Display Eater's licence threatens that if you try to use a pirated serial number with Display Eater, the software will delete your home file.

If you go to the webpage of Reverse Code [http://reversecode.com/], which makes the software, the developer says that the whole purpose of the licence was to create a scare campaign. He though that if people feared sticking in a pirated licence code number he would not have to waste time writing copy protection routines to be broken over and over.

He admitted that the whole idea was a mistake. Some people started buying multiple keys, which he never intended, and when the protection was in place, people who did not even know they had committed piracy or what piracy was were left in the dark.

Legitimate and prospective users started fearing the program, which he never imagined. He said he now has plans to make the software free, and or open source. He has since released a free key which will not eat your Apple. µ