🚀 go-pugleaf

In <810@rtbrain.rightbrain.com> glenn@rightbrain.com (Glenn Reid) writes:

>Prices for software are still high because of piracy.

Glenn really has a blind spot here.  Piracy is still high because 
of improperly high prices.  

>It might inconvenience you to not be able to copy and use software
>on several machines, or at home. It's also inconvenient for you to
>photocopy a book and bind it so you can have a copy at home and at work.

Ah, but books cost $5 to $50, because the publishers want to sell a 
lot of copies.  The inconvenience of copying a book, together with 
almost everyone's desire to obey the law (even when it's of such 
dubious public value as our anti-consumer copyright and patent 
laws), ensure that few books are copied -- because of fair pricing.  

Records are priced like books, and suffer only a modest amount of 
pirating.  Videos are priced a little less fairly, so it's more of 
a problem in that market, but still not a big one.  

Software typically costs $50 to $2,500 (or more).  This 10 to 
50-fold excess over other publications' pricing is much more 
responsible for piracy than ease of copying is.  The typical 
software consumer, unlike the typical book-buyer, feels that "the 
system" is victimizing him.  Whether or not that feeling is 
justified, it is real, and the typical user feels that because he 
was charged 10 times a fair price, he has the right to make copies 
for all his friends, whatever the law may say.  

>Users are responsible for piracy

Software producers, with their obviously excessive pricing, are the 
culprits.  The users are just leveling the playing field to get a 
fair break.  

Glenn, if RightBrain Rulers cost $10, with source code, and with 
only a "fair play request" on the diskette's label to discourage 
copying. there would be little or no copying and lots of people who 
don't use the program now would be using it.  

Remember that these "laws" were not designed to help the people, 
they were lobbied aggressively for by the publishing industry for 
its private gain.  One day, the American people will get wise and 
do something about this.  In the meantime, it's at least as 
important for you to be on the side of morally-low pricing and for 
the user to be on the side of morally-low piracy.  

Unfortunately, the price cuts in RightBrain's August sale may not
be quite big enough to cause the 10-fold or more increase in unit
sales that can reasonably be expected from fair pricing.  I
congratulate Glenn on taking the first step, but I wish it were big
enough to make him and others see the huge contribution they could
make -- to themselves as much as to the world -- by keeping prices
for almost all software within the $5 to $50 "book" range.
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