Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ames!amdahl!uunet!algor2!jeffrey From: jeffrey@algor2.uu.net (Jeffrey Kegler) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss Subject: Re: Media cost Message-ID: <1989Jul27.013854.5557@algor2.uu.net> Date: 27 Jul 89 01:38:54 GMT References: <33473@apple.Apple.COM> <247@unmvax.unm.edu> Reply-To: jeffrey@algor2.UUCP (Jeffrey Kegler) Organization: Algorists, Inc. Lines: 36 In article paul@cis.ohio-state.edu writes: => I suspect that what Landon may have been trying to point out was the => sale of FSF software on CD-ROM form for $500 ... => $500 is a bit steep. FSF really cannot be criticized on this point, whether they were charging $50 or $5000. You and ten others could buy the CD. You could copy the software from the net, or someone who had copied it from the net, and put it on CD yourself--and sell the CD's! Any distribution FSF does is, beyond sending out the first few copies to highly accessible loci, above and beyond the call of duty. Actually, I would like the FSF stuff on CD, and no, I would not pay $500 for it. $50 seems a lot more like it. But if I want it on CD bad enough, nothing prevents me from going out, doing it myself, and recouping my costs by selling the CDs. I have no right to complain to FSF. According to the copyleft, in fact, I could write a nifty shell script that deletes files with special characters in their names. Since this is such a major innovation in UNIX programming :-) I can add it to the CD raising the price to $5,000, $50 for the GNU Emacs, GCC, etc. and $4,950 for J. Kegler's new cosmic enhancement to UNIX. Nice, no, legal and within the copyleft, yes. Of course, any buyer of my CD could copy the GNU stuff, omit my new utility and copy the remaining fragment to CD, cutting the price in the process. -- Jeffrey Kegler, Independent UNIX Consultant, Algorists, Inc. jeffrey@algor2.UU.NET or uunet!algor2!jeffrey 1762 Wainwright DR, Reston VA 22090