Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: lotus chairman makes 26 million
Keywords: copy protection piracy
Message-ID: <1641@looking.UUCP>
Date: 14 May 88 02:34:07 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <362@cf-cm.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 35

In article <362@cf-cm.UUCP> mch@computing-maths.cardiff.ac.uk (Major Kano) writes:
>
>   "I really need it, and though I should like, from a fair-play viewpoint, to
>    pay for it, the people who wrote it are greedy so-and-so's and are
>    charging 200% more than the product is actually worth."

If software authors charged 200% more than what their software was worth, they
would not sell one single copy.  Not one.  OK, perhaps a few copies to
complete imbiciles, but that's about it.  Lotus has managed to sell a few
million copies.

Ah, you mean 200% more than it's worth to YOU!  So what we need is to hire
you and others like you to be "worth police" to go around and make sure
nobody charges more for anything than you think it's worth, even if millions
of others think it is worth more.

How much is land worth?  How much is gold worth?  How much is a spreadsheet
worth?  Why should software be any different from land?

>
>   In other words, the s/w writers are * PROFITEERING *.
>
>   This seems to me to be a crushing indictment of s/w writers, but it is the
>most common reason for s/w copying that I have heard of. In most cases, I would
>agree with it.

I hate to tell you this, but making as big a profit as possible is what makes
the world go around.  Most people in business would be confused if you told
them profiteering was a crushing indictment.

I suppose you want wage police to set your salary, and to make sure it
gets reduced if it gets too high, or *gasp* more than you're worth.

-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473