Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!boerner
From: boerner@ut-emx.UUCP (Brendan B. Boerner)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Copywrongs
Message-ID: <17453@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 89 04:34:11 GMT
References: <11143@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <8908182307.AA11856@nlp9> <12440@s.ms.uky.edu> <2574@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Reply-To: boerner@emx.UUCP (Brendan B. Boerner)
Organization: UT Austin Computation Center, Microcomputer Services
Lines: 55

In article <2574@trantor.harris-atd.com> bbadger@x102c.harris-atd.com (Badger BA 64810) writes:
>In article <12440@s.ms.uky.edu> tek@ms.uky.edu (Thomas Kunselman) writes:
[...deleted...]
>>When development costs have been paid for there is no reason NOT to copy
>                                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>the information for free.  I believe it could get quite difficult to 
>>produce new information products for 0 real development costs.  
>>
[...deleted...]

>Except for the usual one:  obscene profits!   What incentive is there to 

Would you care to define your criteria of obscene?  I suppose you work
and your employer pays you a salary for that work which you then use
for food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, etc...  You also probably
try to put a bit of each paycheck in the bank as savings also, right?
Well, this is profit.  Is your profit obscene?  If not, why not?

>stop?  Of course, in a market economy, we hope that someone just a little 
>less greedy will step in and produce a similar product at a lower cost.

It's called competition.  Why, you might ask, if there are so many
companies producing hardware/software, are prices so high, with all of
this competition?  Because producers of these products charge what the
market will bear.  It so happens that what the market will bear you
find to be to high.  But others don't and this is why the producers
don't feel any incentive to lower what they charge.  This does not mean
that the folks who pay for a particular application for instance don't
grumble that it is an awful lot of money.  What it means is that they
think it's an awful lot of money but they'll still pay it because the
benefits continue to outweigh the costs.

>There are many products which, like software, have small ``marginal costs''.
>The classic example is pharmaceuticals.  Most of the expense is in the 
>research, not the production.  Profits usually go to more research, but
>bottom line-oriented stockholders and managers, can easily sway this.

I don't quite agree.  Sure, on the surface, it seems that the bulk of
the cost of producing software is in the developement phase and the
costs of packaging and distribution are small compared to this.  But
consider that after the product is out the door the manufacturer
can't take the money and run.  If it did, then there would be no
support, updates, etc...

>Bernard A. Badger Jr.	407/984-6385          |``Use the Source, Luke!''
>Secure Computer Products                      |``Get a LIFE!''  -- J.H. Conway
>Harris GISD, Melbourne, FL  32902             |Buddy, can you paradigm?
>Internet: bbadger%x102c@trantor.harris-atd.com|'s/./&&/g' Tom sed expansively.

Brendan
--
Brendan B. Boerner		Phone: 512/471-3241
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