Editing WordStar (section)

===Problems with piracy===

WordStar was not copy-protected up to and including version 3.3.{{r|manes198306}} Columnist [[John Dvorak]] recalled: "WordStar may have been the most pirated software in the world, which in many ways accounted for its success. (Software companies don’t like to admit to this as a possibility.) Books for WordStar sold like hot cakes and the authors knew they were selling documentation for pirated copies of WordStar. The company itself should have just sold the documentation alone to increase sales. This was the wink-wink-nudge-nudge aspect of the industry at the time and everyone knew it. So when WordStar 2000 arrived with a copy protection scheme, everyone should have predicted its immediate demise."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dvorak |first1=John C. |title=Whatever Happened to WordStar? |url=http://www.dvorak.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-wordstar-2/ |website=Dvorak Uncensored |publisher=John C. Dvorak |access-date=July 9, 2020}}</ref>

Besides the ready availability of third-party books explaining WordStar in detail,{{r|cowan198208}} the program's extensive and configurable onscreen help facility (help text appeared in a resizable window at the top of the screen) made it easy to use an illegal copy.