[CS-FSLUG] Preparing a little e-mail for Microsoft

[Nathan T.]

I doubt this will carry any water, but if MS is responsible for my
inability to make legal backups of my Age of Empires Cd's then I at
least want them to know I'm not happy about it. Right now it's just a
draft copy, I would like to know what everyone thinks about it.

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About four years ago I purchased a copy of Age of Empires II and the
Conquerors expansion, I have since played the games a lot and now the
Cd's are very worn out. As is my legal right in Canada to do so, I
have tried to make copies of the Cd's before they are too worn out to
work any more, but every time the CD burning software complains that
it encounters a critical read error and cannot continue copying the
disk. I have tried three different programs, Nero Burning Rom, K3B,
and Sonic RecordNow with no success. Finally at the advice of a friend
I tried using the 'dd' command in Linux to make ISO images of the CD,
and when I tried that I noticed that both the Age of Empires II and
Conqueror's Expansion Cd's had their problems 1.6 Mb into the disks.

This does not strike me as a coincidence, I have been able to copy
other disks in far worse shape without any trouble at all, which is
why I suspect that Microsoft may be responsible for putting copy
protection on the Cd's.

While I do not object to Microsoft protecting itself from piracy, I
feel that I am now the victim of deception since it was my hope to
extend the life of the Microsoft Games I had purchased by making
copies of the Cd's before the old ones wore out, but it is now clear
that copying the disks will not be possible. Microsoft did not appear
to have any warning on the product boxes about such copy protection
and therefore I was not properly warned first.

I do not know for certain that this is in fact caused by copy
protection, which is why I am not yet ready to consider Microsoft
responsible; however if it is due to copy protection I am hoping to
get replacement Cd's at the cost of shipping and I would like
Microsoft to include proper notice visible on the product boxes from
now on regarding this.

I do not know if I still have the product receipts for the two games,
but I do still have the manuals, original disks, and boxes they came
in.

I have also been advised that Microsoft provides replacement Cd's at
the cost of USD $15; however, if Microsoft is responsible for putting
copy protection on the disks without proper notice on the product
boxes at the time of purchase, then I do not believe Microsoft is
entitled to charge more than the cost of shipping (if that) for the
replacement Cd's. If the Cd's cannot be copied due to a fault of my
own then I will not hold Microsoft responsible for replacing them.

Thank you.
N. Thompson