Indeed. For many years Software like Windows and Office came on a set of 3" disks that could be copied and any copy could be used to install a working version on your machine.
Then came the big breakthrough! Office would write a flag on to disk one of the set saying that it had been used for an installation and it would not install again if the disk was write protected or had been used before. This took about 12 seconds for a moderately intelligent 10YO to circumvent. I suppose this stopped a few terribly honest people from accidentally using a set more than once.
In fact, games were the leaders when it came to copy protection. I remember there were programs available with tables of settings to ‘unlock’ and copy different games on the Apple II+. Never needed to - there was an adult down the road with an amazing collection, who would also give me a lift to the local user group meetings where you could get a disc full of shareware.
Whilst we are reminiscing: I remember the 5" floppies but not the 8" ones, they were a bit before my ownership time. I was glad when we went to 3.25, the hard cases were much safer.
The only usergroup I used to go to was for OS/2 which I dabbled in for a while. I actusally really liked it (as I also liked BeOS) but the lack of software drove me away, on both counts.
Pedant again, this time to correct myself. They were 5 1/4", then 3 1/2". I only saw the 8" ones briefly.
With the 5 1/4", most were sold as single-sided but you could cut a notch in the other side, turn it over and have twice the space. One problem - make sure your notch doesn’t cut the disc surface; it is only to affect the cover, and indicates to the drive that the disc is writable. (Covering the notch made it read-only.)
Yes if you want particular shows you will have to be signed up to a multitude of different providers each with a payment plan. Rather than shared points of access eg Stan and Netflix offering a broad range of content it becomes a very specialised market. Once a portal becomes it’s own branded products eg Disney then they can charge what they like to their audience and if you want that product you must pay them and so on for every other provider of content out there.
