🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1685@tekgen.bv.tek.com> boblu@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Robert Luneski) writes:

>In article <BzB7yM.9u0@ccu.umanitoba.ca> ens@ccu.umanitoba.ca writes:

>>I have seen this scenario play out many times. It's illegal, yes.
>>But as bad as stealing 6 TVs? Get serious.

>You tell that to my son when I can't buy him shoes because software sales are
>down and then I get calls for product support from three times the number of
>users than can be accounted for by legal sales.  You would be surprised how
>many unique stories people come up with for why they don't know there
>registration number AND never sent in their card AND can't find their manual 
>AND lost their orginal disk.

Do you know what I  would  tell  you  and  your  son  in  such  a
situation?  That  you  could  probably have just as many pairs of
shoes had you recognized that this situation  you  describe  does
indeed  most  strongly  encourage  to  switch  from  charging for
copyrights to charging for  support.  If  the  number  of  people
calling  for  support is already three times the number of people
who bought that software, imagine how many more must  already  be
out  there,  illegally  using  it and not daring to call you. And
then, imagine how that number could yet be increased by  actually
allowing  people  to  freely  copy  that  stuff,  i.e.  making it
copylefted. Now, an increased percentage of people from  an  user
base  of  increased size call your hotline, and the wires of your
phone will glow so brightly you even can  spare  light  bulbs  in
your  house  :-).  Charging for calling the hotline will probably
turn out to be a real gold mine, and would  certainly  help  your
son  and  you  much  more than reasoning how well you would do if
there were no software pirates.

Greetinx, Jan

 +- Jan Kim -- X.400:    S=kim;OU=vax;O=mpiz-koeln;P=mpg;A=dbp;C=de -+
 |             Internet: kim@vax.mpiz-koeln.mpg.dbp.de               |
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