Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!daemon From: RFORSTER@UNCAEDU.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Shareware ideas Message-ID: <1611@rutgers.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Tue, 28-Apr-87 21:35:07 EDT Article-I.D.: rutgers.1611 Posted: Tue Apr 28 21:35:07 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 30-Apr-87 04:20:21 EDT Sender: daemon@rutgers.RUTGERS.EDU Lines: 123 From: The same friend asked me to do this again and for the very same reason! /Russ From: Stephen Vermeulen, author of Vdraw and Chairman of AMUC (AMUC == the AMiga Users of Calgary) To: Netlanders, large and small, who are interested in the survival of the Shareware software publication concept. Hi all, I am one of the silent majority who have read only access to this group and hence you haven't seen me here before. Seeing the recent adds for a disk format magazine called "Software Digest" in AmigaWorld offering a best of the Public Domain and Shareware format and having had some direct communications with Software Digest I thought it about time that I bounce the following ideas off the net to see if others out there feel the way I do or can offer some alternatives. ********** IMPORTANT ************* If you have thoughts on this please EMAIL them to me care of RUSS and I will edit and repost an article on the subject. If you REALLY feel it needs general net discussion then post it generally, remember I don't want to overload the net on this one so EMAIL FIRST, POST LATER!!!!! ******** THE PROBLEM ******** Is Shareware about to die out? We have all read of Perry's RRD plight, the last time I heard he might have reached 20 contributions for an excellent product. (I don't use his RRD, I got an offical VDK: beta with my PacificCypress 2M board). I have heard second hand, that the fellow who brought us CosmoRoids "reports fairly dismal returns". My own experience with Vdraw amounts to 18 sponsors in nearly one year, although the most recent Fish Disk version (1.19) did increase the rate, and I can see why. Still, the return might amount to 2% of the development costs (if that...). We have a few other fellows on the net like BOLS EWACS, Matt Dillon, Dave Wecker... who have provided some really good stuff gratis, but how long will this last without a tangible carrot on the stick? What I fear might happen is that when commercial (as opposed to Fred Fish) distribution of Shareware and Public Domain programs starts to happen some people are going to start feeling ripped off and the, so far excellent, stream of good, cheap software is going to dry up. ********* Do We Really Need Shareware? ********* Yes we do! The primary reason is that only the Shareware distribution system can avoid the high overheads that commercial software distribution entails. The primary benifits to the end user are that he gets to test the software before buying it and MOST IMPORTANTLY applications for which there is little apparent demand can still be distributed, for example the AmigaMonitor program (it saved my hide once so I paid up). The benefits to the free lance hacker are largly unrestricted freedom of expression and the ensuing joy of creating the program HE/SHE wants to, as well as some possibility of financial returns (ya got to pay for that Amiga somehow), and FAME! Well, we are back to the problem again, you just can't eat Fame. ******** So What Do We Do ? ********* The solution I am proposing is that we Shareware programmers should demand some form of royalty payment directly from those who would like to distribute our works. The size of the payment could be quite small so as not to add greatly to the costs of the disks and hence make it more likely that the distributer would have a greater sales volume and user copying of the distributed disks would be less. It is my opinion that this royalty could do great things for the Shareware domain in general. The promise of some rewards would improve the quality of existing works, would bring new ideas out of the dark, would speed the debugging and enhancement process, and might prevent some authors from going commercial. In consideration of the royalty is seems fair that the distributer be given exclusvive rights to distribute that particular version (FLAME PROOF SUIT ON) What level of royalties is that should be demanded is a difficult question. This really depends on the volumes of disks that are handled by the distributer. Considering that the installed base of Amigas is now over 150,000 I would guess that a volume of 1% of this (1,500) would be the lower limit and volumes of up to 10K copies might be attainable. What are your thoughts on this Fred? What sort of volumes do the Fish Disks hit? ******* Last Words For Now ******** Think about it, flame it, hack it, maybe even feed it to your local line eater, but send me some EMAIL or Net FLAMES (my hide is pretty thick these days) on the subject. I for one do not want to have to pay $100 a pop for software, but I would be willing to pay more for PD or Shareware disks if I knew the authors were getting some of it! Stephen (the Bug) Vermeulen (CHHH) (AMUC) I have all the protection I need, I have a PAGE EATER, for a small fee you can have one too... -- "We must acknowledge, once and for all, that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis." - Spock Russell M Forster BITnet: RForster@UNCAEDU.BITnet ARPA: OC.Russ@CU20B.Columbia.Edu CPS: Mount Royal College 4825 Richard Rd. SW. Calgary, Alberta Canada, T3E 6K6 Voice: (403) 240-6052 Opinions expressed herein are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer or anyone else for that.Gope ope