🚀 go-pugleaf

sanguish@digifix!uunet.ca writes:
: irving@Happy-Man.com (Irving_Wolfe) writes:
: : In <810@rtbrain.rightbrain.com> glenn@rightbrain.com (Glenn Reid) writes:
: : : Prices for software are still high because of piracy.
: : Piracy is still high because of improperly high prices.  
: Wrong.  Piracy is high because people get away with it every day.

So, noone gets away with improperly high prices, huh? Happens also every
day. But most of all Piracy is still high because it is the only way for
a developer to make money. Much pirated software is spread a lot,
becomes a standard, and maybe we should ask Mr. Gates why MS-DOS is a
standard... maybe because of its lacking Copy Protection, no?

: 	A VAST MAJORITY of the population can read, and that makes for
: 	a much larger market.  If you book is only going to be of interest
: 	to a slight slight fraction of the population like Next software
: 	is going to be, you must charge more for it.

Right. But there are also books in the cited price range which are
adressed to a *very* small market (take the NeXT Book, for example), a
market just the size of a NeXT Developer's Market... Does this still
justify the 50 fold price?
 
:	[VideoDisc...]
: 	is priced fairly from day one, is because there is almost
: 	no rental market for it.  That means there is less loss to 
: 	pirates.

Actually there no market at all for VideoDisc. You should look at sales
in Europe: they try to market the things, but nobody will buy. Why?
And then there is another problem you touched: the pirates. Are you
talking about Norm Average copying his fave video, once he's rented it
for a few hours, or are you talking about people who copy videos for a
living and then sell them? These seem to be two completely different
cases to me, because one of them is really a loss to the industry,
whereas the other might not even have bought the video of it would have
cost him, and then he wouldn't be showing it to his friends, who might
be possible customers...
 
: 	How much support does the average book require?
: 	How often is the average book updated?
: 	How often is there some sort of incompatibility when you are reading 
: 	two or more books?

A good argument against comparing books and software ;-).
 
: : >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.  
: What you are talking about is theft.  Plain and simple.  If you
: want to "even the playing field" don't buy their software.

You're right on this point. And I will not try to defend theft here,
having to earn my money writing software, too. But as I have the right
to say something that won't be my employer's opinion here, I'd just like
to say that still something sucks with pricing schemes. We should admit
that the industry (we) has not yet found an effective way of pricing
things in a way that would be fair to almost everyone. Maybe we will
never find such a scheme, but the point is: as disturbing as these
messages might sound, when someone accuses you of overpricing, and that
someone is a possible customer, then you should definitely not close
your ears and pretend you don't hear.

: 	[..] stealing software that you feel is overpriced IS morally wrong and
: 	illegal.

Even in places where it is not illegal it still is morally wrong.

: : 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

Hey, this struck me. Who are you to tell someone else what he should ask
to get for his products? I think this is a question of his own corporate
policy, and if he cuts prices too much he will not only make no money,
but also make his earlier customers feel like fools for paying the full
price and thus instigate piracy, because they will wait the next time
and use a pirated copy 'till the sales. 

: 	This all leads towards that screwed up FSF/Stallman thinking that
: 	all software should belong to all mankind.

What's wrong with FSF? [They too have a corporate policy, and a very
good one, too. So I really don't see why you attack them here.]

Cheers
- Apostolos

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