You are of course fully entitled to your opinion, and if you want post on your website data that we don't provide without safeguards, that is also up to you. Personally, I totally disapprove of software piracy, the people who do it, and the people who support it, and I will do nothing to help them in any way. Metaphorically, the only time I would not urinate on them is if they were already on fire. Although it is generally accepted that the main reason for 3DO's demise was mismanagement, the loss of revenue caused by people pirating their games cannot have helped.And allow me to correct you. The game is still available legitimately. I've just checked, and Amazon has 8 copies, new and used. (See for yourself - google for "sold out software" "Might and Magic VI" - enter the query as given, including the quotes, and click on the first link.) Or are you saying that that Amazon is not selling them legitimately?
Misapprehension #2 is that we don't tell people how to fly. We are perfectly prepared to tell anyone about those key plants and anything else, provided that they can prove that they have a legitimate copy of the game. All he or she has to do is to take a digital photo of the "Play" disk (a decent mobile 'phone photo would do) and email it with the request to Bones at telphelp(at)yahoo.com and he will delighted to provide the information.
Also, how do you know that John van Caneghem is not still receiving royalties from the game? Whether he is still getting royalties or not would depend on the contract between JvC and 3DO, and on the conditions under which 3DO sold the rights to Ubisoft. You may well be right, but you may also be wrong.
You also seem to think it does not matter if the copyright holder is defrauded of only a small amount of money. The amount of the fraud does not alter the offence. There's a story about George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright. A very beautiful lady is said to have sought him out at a party, and was making a nuisance of herself. Shaw said "Would you go to bed with me for £10,000?" She hemmed and hawed a bit, but eventually said "Yes." Shaw then asked "Would you go to bed with me for £10?" She recoiled as if he had hit her, and cried out "Do you take me for a prostitute?" Shaw replied "We've already established that. What we are doing now is arguing about the price."
You are absolutely right in saying "i highly doubt that anywhere in 3d0s copyright section of the manual, did it say that obtaining the game ANYWHERE besides 3d0 and 3d0 only was allowed by law". What it says on the CD is "© 1998 The 3DO Company". This means that 3DO and ONLY 3DO had a right to copy that CD - that is why it is called copyright. Anyone could sell it, but only 3DO could legally provide the copies that were sold.
So you will appreciate that I can see where you're coming from, although I completely disagree with where you've been. I do however wholeheartedly concur when you say that MM6 is one of the greatest games of all time.
