Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!magnus!levin
From: levin@magnus.Hotline.Com (Michael M Levin)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Scareware
Message-ID: <644@magnus.Hotline.Com>
Date: 17 Mar 90 09:11:41 GMT
References: <14010@s.ms.uky.edu> <125816@midas.UUCP> <635@magnus.Hotline.Com> <34812@watmath.waterloo.edu> <10612@hoptoad.uucp> <1370@utoday.UUCP> <1990Mar10.020747.29783@pegasus.com> <1342@utoday.UUCP> <643@magnus.Hotline.Com> <1360@utoday.UUCP>
Reply-To: levin@magnus.Hotline.Com (Michael M Levin)
Organization: Silent Radio, Los Angeles
Lines: 59

In article <1360@utoday.UUCP> greenber@.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg) writes:

>I know what I write. I try to be pretty careful in my choosing of words.
>You might have even noted that I've never stated that I have the right, as 
>a shareware author, to distribute something through Usenet.  Given an
>alternate newsgroup to stick it on, I will.  Not until then.

	Are you saying "Until there's an alternate newsgroup I'm going to
post to Usenet" or "Until there's an alternate newsgroup, I won't post to
Usenet"???  If it's the latter, I applaud you.  If it's the former, then
you're essentially saying is that you'll follow the rules once you like
them, and until then you'll do what you please.  That kind of attitude is
one which will truly result in 'bringing down the `net'.


>Forget the Usenet argument of "you put some bits on my disk, they're mine
>I tell you, all mine!".  I consider it bogus, but so what?
>
>The grander issue of registering your usage of shareware is the point I'm
>trying to discuss.  Due to arguments such as the above "it's mine!", there
>simply isn't that much shareware posted on Usenet.  Heck, attitudes like
>those expressed by my worthy opponents in this discussion are making my
>next cut of my code be offered at $129/copy through normal commercial
>means instead of @ $10/copy through shareware.  I'll make reams more
>money that way, people won't have to worry about disk space, and the 
>only ones who *really* end up suffering are the folks who depend on
>shareware authors to continue providing good code at a good price.  I'm
>.....

	I think it would be more accurate to say that your software is
going to sell for about $40 to a distributor, who will then sell it to
a software dealer for about $65, who will then end up selling it to the
end customer for $129.  This principle is one which is inherent in our
business structure (i.e., Capitalism).  Them's the rules, and if you
don't like them, then don't play.

	As to the issue of 'the folks who depend on shareware authors to
continue providing good code at a good price', spare me the mock 
philanthropy.  You're not aiming at their needs, but rather at your own,
making $$$$$$.  If you're *TRULY* worried about the 'poor folks who depend'
on you, then send a copy to them for **FREE**.  I'll be happy to forward
that on my system.  After all, I'm a **TRUE** philanthropist, who hasn't
got any financial interest whatsoever in my use of the `net.  I do it for
the benefit of 'the folks who depend' on me, and a whole lot of other
philanthropic sites, to create this ethereal entity called 'USENET'.  That's
what it was originally created for; there's plenty of documentation about
it's purpose.  


	IMHO.  Have a nice day.   :-)



				Mike Levin
-- 
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