Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!lynx.northeastern.edu!davidbrierley From: davidbrierley@lynx.northeastern.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: RE: Piracy and EVPs Message-ID: Date: 19 May 89 22:21:53 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 31 Many people have attempted to draw parallels between software upgrades and cars. To that I respond as others have done: there is no such thing as a disk drive that can duplicate automobiles! Others have gone on to say that the costs of upgrade programming should be paid by the consumers, and rightfully so. In my original message I said that often upgrades have the same suggested retail price as the original version. Since people who have older versions must pay EVPs for those upgrades it means that the upgrade costs are being absorbed by only those who have paid the upgrade penalty - not by the people who have the new improved version at the same old price! This causes some people to either use pirated versions until they buy what they consider to be an advanced enough version (if they buy one at all) or to pirate newer versions after buying an old version. The car analogy has another flaw - if the price of one car is too expensive you can buy a cheaper one because once you know how to drive one car you can drive others. This doesn't hold true for software. You have to start using new commands and even new operating systems - so software users don't exactly have as much choice in moving, say, to a lower cost spreadsheet. If a publisher wants to upgrade, fine! Just put the additional upgrade costs (if any) on the new versions and let the people who have older versions trade them in for the new stuff and pay the difference in cost; that way, they are paying for the original software development and the upgrade expenses as well! davidbrierley@lynx.northeastern.edu