Xref: utzoo gnu.misc.discuss:551 alt.religion.computers:1129 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!nuchat!sugar!peter From: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,alt.religion.computers Subject: Re: GNUclear Warfare Message-ID: <4783@sugar.hackercorp.com> Date: 17 Dec 89 05:45:53 GMT References: <2558@flatline.UUCP> <4639@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1989Dec16.211504.3448@world.std.com> Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston Lines: 23 In article <1989Dec16.211504.3448@world.std.com>, bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes: > The main reason it doesn't plague the music industry more (it does) is > that a pre-recorded cassette tape usually costs under $10 and the same > quality blank tape is about $5... If you could sell as many copies of a piece of software as you can a tape, and if the production costs were as low, then this analogy would hold water. > Ok, that was harsh, but the fact that it costs you a lot doesn't > justify creating government monopolies to ensure your profits. The fact that the industry in question (quality software for folks who aren't computer geeks like you & I) wouldn't exist otherwise, though, changes things a bit. > that's what this is all about Not really. If you can reverse engineer it it's not a monopoly. If you can't, it is. That's the difference between Apple and Microsoft. -- Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva `-_-' 'U` "I haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on tape somewhere"