Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!perry
From: perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An issue for the entire Amiga Community.
Summary: Piracy Not PD Is The Problem
Message-ID: <1377@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jun 90 03:37:05 GMT
References: <20930@snow-white.udel.EDU> <1990Jun3.163532.12083@ameristar> <12779@netcom.UUCP>
Reply-To: perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz)
Organization: ASDG Incorporated
Lines: 56

Dave McMahan writes:
>I do not know of a company with a superior product that has folded due to
>PD competition.  

Meridian  Software.   EX-Makers  of Zing, Zing Keys and Zing Spell.  A good
bunch of guys who where there in the beginning.  And not there now.

>Stallman has some appealling ideas, but I prefer to get paid for
>the code I develop.  Of course, the stuff I write is usually the type of
>software that's not too applicable to anyone without a 34 meter Radio-telescope
>or a high speed digital ground station to support it, so I guess it wouldn't
>really be applicable for the masses.   :-)

In  the  above,  lies the theory we hit on a long time ago which helps keep
ASDG's doors open.  That is:  Escalate far beyond your competitor's ability
to counter.  Said another way:  Peace, through overwhelming firepower.  (Oh
please let me be Secretary of Defense just for one year!)

In  general,  the easier as application is to knock off, the more likely it
will  be  knocked  off.  As you get to more sophisticated applications, the
less likely it is that you will face PD (or any other) competition.

Of  course,  the more sophisticated an application is, the more dollars and
hours you throw at its development. And the higher the risk.

This  is  the  rule  we've  lived  by  for some time now and we're still in
business.   Competition from PD is not our problem.  We put enough into our
products to provide genuine worth for money paid.  What *IS* our problem is
when  people  acquire  our  products  without paying.  Call it whatever you
want.   It  is plain ****ing out and out theft.  And yes, it literally does
take food from my nine month old son's mouth.

I'd  give almost anything to have people use all the PD software they could
ever  want  if  they  didn't want to pay for commercial products as long as
they stopped ripping commercial developers off.

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Put  another way, David McMahan makes the valid point that PD software is a
valuable  alternative  to  commercial  software.   On  the two sides of the
equation you have commercial ware balanced by freeware.  Then a very large,
very  selfish  and  very  low  group of users says ``For whatever reason, I
won't  buy  commercial  software, but hey - screw the equation, I'll rip it
off anyway.''

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Piracy...and  not PD software...is what's hurting developer's the most.  If
a  commercial  product  is  bested  by  a  PD product, then as Dave McMahan
says...Drawinian selection rules all. But Piracy...Piracy takes the best of
the gene pool and hamstrings it or, in many cases kills it.

-- 
Perry Kivolowitz, ASDG Inc. ``We look for things. Things that make us go.''
	UUCP:  {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!perry
	CIS:   76004,1765 PLINK: pk-asdg