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From: mats@dual.UUCP (Mats Wichmann)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.news,net.legal
Subject: Re: Copyright Violations - how can software people do this
Message-ID: <387@dual.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Mar-84 11:26:32 EST
Article-I.D.: dual.387
Posted: Mon Mar 26 11:26:32 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Mar-84 01:30:23 EST
References: <778@nsc.UUCP>, <140@looking.UUCP> <76@utastro.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 37

Ed Nather made some excellent points about software piracy/pricing.
We probably DO gouge badly. However, it is also a free market we are
dealing with here - whatever people will pay is the right price.
Software prices are based on bringing in a certain amount of money,
to amortise the development costs and make a profit. I presume books 
are priced so that the average book recoups its costs, with a small
profit (or loss, if it really bombs), and the occasional best-seller 
is what reaps the profits. Of course, software is still a get-rich quick 
area, so MOST products are priced to make a BIG profit, not a `normal' 
one (what is a `normal' profit). I think software should be priced the
same way - and if it turns into a hit, then the author/marketer
deservedly turn a big profit. 

Just for laughs, imagine we made software free and sold the manual.
There is some precedent for this - for example, there is a BASIC
interpreter (I forget the name) that is public domain, but the
manual costs some bucks. Okay - new can of worms. The software is
packaged this way, and someone gets a copy of a free software
package, then puts out a request on the net for help in using it
so he doesn't have to buy the manual. Do we spend the next six
months deciding if THIS is a copyright violation (:-) ???

Personally, I think that as when the software market matures a little
more, prices will settle down to a level more commensurate with the
production costs, the way books are now. If you borrowed a friend's
K&R C programming manual, and had it Xeroxed, you would be paying
$11.40 (at 5 cents per copy), plus spend a LOT of time doing it
(a copy service wont duplicate it for you). It is clearly worth your
while to go out and spend the 18 or 20 bucks to buy the book. This
is still quite a ways away, and maybe it will never happen, but I think
it will. AT&T may lead the way here - royalties for a binary license
for Sys V, release 2, 1-2 users, is now $60. This is down to the range
where it no longer makes sense to make bootleg copies. 

	    Mats Wichmann
	    Dual Systems Corp.
	    ...{ucbvax,amd70,ihnp4,cbosgd,decwrl,fortune}!dual!mats