Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!sugar!karl
From: karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Summary: with software rental, author compensation is even lower, other stuff
Message-ID: <3122@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 19 Dec 88 19:59:34 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <12325@cup.portal.com> <2434@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 51

In article <2434@ssc-vax.UUCP>, eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) writes:
> It has occurred to me why software couldn't be handled by video
> stores.  They could stock software the way they stock videotapes,
> which would let people rent the software for a few days to test
> it out, for a fee of around $5 or so, then, if you like it, you
> can go out and buy a copy of your own.  This would parallel
> video in that you can buy your own copy of a tape if you like
> it a lot.

And it would parallel video in that if you like a video you can dup
the tape on your second machine.  It's interesting that all those tapes
the rental companies rent say "licensed only for noncommercial use in
homes."  This would seem to preclude renting it out.  I guess not.

What your plan does is ultimately reduce income for intellectual property
creators (programmers in this case) even more, because gobs of people get the
use of the program with *no* compensation for the author/vendor other than 
from the original sale.

You know, before they had copyright laws and such, there wasn't any protection
of intellectual property, consequently for example Johann Sebastian Bach 
had to teach and even chop his own firewood even when he was old because he
wasn't compensated for the use of his music.   It may lead to a more 
well-rounded life but it reduces the amount of time one can spend writing music.  
The same is true for Amiga programmers.  I would like to make a living 
programming the Amiga.  I don't even mind if it doesn't pay as well as my 
current programming job.  The enjoyment of working for myself, on the Amiga, 
in a productive one or two person environment -- my love of programming, if 
you will -- makes up the difference.  But since it doesn't pay well enough,
and piracy is, I think, *the*  major contributing factor, I can't.  

Who loses by piracy?  Everyone who would run a program someone would write if 
they could afford to write it.  Who gains?  In the short term, the pirates.
By stealing things, they don't have to pay for them.  Funny, too, apparently
most hardcore pirates have some sort of "property is theft" justification for 
what they do when it is really, in fact, just down-with-the-system 
techno-vandalism.

It's like the people who take luxurious baths during a severe water shortage.
They don't care what would happen if *everyone* behaved that way.  Well, most
Amiga software is still garage shop in origin.  Authors keep slugging away 
because they like the machine, but if it doesn't start to pay reasonably, 
they're going to stop.  If the piracy gets bad enough, professional Amiga
software development will stop.  Whether you care or not, well...


Disclaimer:  That's my opinion and you can like it or lump it
-- 
-- "We've been following your progress with considerable interest, not to say
-- contempt."  -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV
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