If I'm buying software for drones, do I need to buy it more than once, or can I just "Copy" Autosofts, Pilot Programs, Firewall, etc, from one drone to another?

See Source Code and Piracy, page 228 of your hymnal.

I was more concerned about at character creation. On one hand, I don't see why not, but on the other hand I'm not sure if it would be right.

My GM made me buy the software at the start of the game, and then spend game time breaking the copy protections. It meant that I only had one souped-up drone at the start of the game, but that was fixed quickly enough.

I thought it was a fair ruling, and intend to use it in games that I run.

We assumed that each Autosoft was paticular to each drone, so if you have two GM-Nissan Dobermans, and you buy one Maneuver autosoft you can crack it and have both use it. But you can't put that same autosoft in your Harley, because the autosoft is programmed for Doberman joints and actuators, not Harley wheels and transmission. We assumed the same thing for drone Firewall and Pilot.
But Matrix programs that Drones might want to use, like ECCM or Sniffer, once cracked can be copied infinitely. We did a run recently where the team was to steal a high-end speed/stealth boat. The thing had ECCM 6 and Stealth 6 programs, and my GM let me copy and pirate them for use in my own drones and commlink (spending appropriate amounts of in-game time to decrypt, of course). However, it had Pilot 6, while a very good program, was entirely useless to anyone without that particular boat.
But that's just our interpretation.

We already were there.
Bottom line: No such limitations in SR4.


Software you buy might be cracked already, too, especially it it comes from shady sources.

If the shady sellers were smart they would fix the copyright programming before they sold it, so people who couldnt crack it would come back.

There are house rules out there for "freeware" versions of software but they have the appropriate limitations (sort of a used cyberware for software). Decrease the cost of the program, limit the max level, and treat the program the same way if the character had Gremlins equal to the level of the program.

What about shareware, where you find out in the middle of combat that the demo version's long arms autosoft only covers one gun and the maneuver autosoft can't turn right?

If a GM finds their players doing this too much you can also take a more drastic measure on copy protection. It's quite possible to set copy protection to the particular hardware ID's that the software is installed on. (Anyone remember the fiasco a year or two ago when Intel/MS tried to use processors to identify machines?) Rather than letting them crack it once and get infinite autosofts you can require them to crack it again in order to configure it for the drone that they want to install it on.

That might be a little overboard but it's an option.

It is still quite costly to upgrade Drones to acceptables Response and Signal.

Why implement additional restrictions? To recreate the good, old feeling that riggers aren't worth playing?

My rule is that everyone gets 1 free month's worth of downtime when they start that they can use to upgrade, crack, build, etc whatever they want and can. So Hackers can use their free month to begin play with some of their programs cracked, or a program partially written, Armorer types can start play with 1 month worth of modifications to their equipment, etc.

My rule has always been that players with enough dice to buy the successes necessary to crack a program (usually only 4 dice total in their pool, 8 for larger programs if I am limiting this sort of extended test attempt). However, I usually have them meet one another afte the game starts, so they can only make their copies onto back-up commlinks and drones.

I also point out that in my game "cracking a program to copy it" doesn't perminantly crack the program so that it can be effortlessly installed elsewhere... that test (usually in terms of hours) is how long it takes the player to make ONE copy of that program on another machine (other than the one it is licensed for) and to configure it correctly, block copy-protection stuff, mucking around in the registry, removing the MCT Genuine Advantage software, etc.

This might be how the BBB intended it, but its unclear, and I think that the way I use the rule keeps players from just sharing all their programs between one another - since the Hacker usually has better things to do than devote a whole weekend to upgrading the mage's Novatech Airware to something usable.

It also means that if they buy a program for one of their drones, they could share it with the other drones, but it is likely to take about a 2-4 hour effort to do so (per drone).

Otherwise, IMO, with my player-hat on, I don't think drones would almost ever be cost-effective to use (especialyl at character creation). After slapping 10-20,000 nuyen worth of programs into a 3-6,000 nuyen drone... I'd almost rather lose a teammate than lose that drone to some enemy fire.

However, if I am starting with 4-5 drones, that share the programs, each one cost an average of 5-11,000 nuyen, which still hurts to lose, but not nearly as bad - plus I still have a copy of those programs laying around somewhere for when I replace the drone.

I have created some Used software rules:
Freeware:
Cost: free (its freeware)
Max rating: 1/2 augmented stat (augmented stat being the other pool where you get dice from like pilot or computers) (round down)[min 1]
Effect: Treat the program to have Gremlins (level 4). This stacks with the Gremlins flaw (so you could have some very unfortunate instances).

Shareware:
Cost: X discount
Discount: lvl 1 = 0.75 lvl 2 = 0.5 lvl 3 = 0.25
Max rating: Can't exceed augmented stat
Effect: Treat the program to have Gremlins equal to the level of the Shareware. This stacks with the Gremlins flaw. The threshold to copy the program is between 5-10 (GM discretion).

Used Software:
Cost: X 1/(square root of (age of the program in months)) (round up)
Max rating: system / (age of the program in months / 10)
Effect: When installing the program make a Software + Logic test with a threashold of 3. If you glitch on the test you corrupt the program and it is lost, else;
The program is effected with the gremlins flaw equal to 3 - number of successes. This stacks with the Gremlins flaw. If you score more then 3 successes the program works normally.
Note: No program can be older then 60 months (the age of the Matrix 2.0). PCs should not be allowed to buy used software at character creation, this should be for RPGing only.