Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <1177@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 88 20:19:43 GMT
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 42

In article <403@eda.com> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes:
<In article <287@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk> (Richard Kennaway CMP RA) writes:
<| Copying software does not change its value one whit.  It reduces the
<| *price* the manufacturer is able to sell it for.  The only difference
<| other peoples' illegal copies of the software I use can make to me is
<| that it hurts the fortunes of the companies who wrote it, who may therefore
<| not write any more.  The idea that copiers have stolen something from the
<| software itself is the ludicrous concept.
<
<Look at that. This bozo just proved my point for me. Copying reduces the
<value to the intellectual owner. Therefore it is theft. This bozo describes
<how it hurts the creator of the software, and how it may cause them
<to stop supporting the software, but cant expand his intellectual horizon
<far enough to understand how this hurts the software and why it is theft. He
<actually *sees* the damage it does, but since he can still use the software
<he doesn't consider it's value reduced.

The value *of the software* is not changed by copying. The *price* may
be affected. The value *to the copyright holder* may also be diminished.
But there is no such thing as "the"  value of a piece of software. There
is only the value for a specific use or to a specific user. 

Do note that I am *not* in favor of pirating software. But you don't help
matters by *assuming* that ALL (or even MOST) pirated copies would have 
been purchased if the user couldn't have pirated them. Believe me, they
wouldn't.

If the price of the software exceeds the value of that software *to a
given user* then that user will either do without or find a way to
reduce the price. Thus, piracy.

What you need to do, is convince the user that he should be doing
without, say by pointing out that the author loses royalties. Not
complaining about the lost *sales*, especially if you keep referring
to the *price* (which *by definition* the user in question has found
to be unreasonable!)

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."