[Re: piracy and oss]

[Edward Glowacki]

Quoted from Marcel Kunath on Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 02:05:43PM -0400:
> > Yeah, that's how it usually works.  What works best for me (free beer) works
> > out worst for the bartender.  What works out best for the bartender ($50 for
> > each beer) works out worst for me.  Eventually, a compromise is reached.
> > ($3/beer)  Econ 101, eh?
> 
> True but only for a two person society. If you have ten customers they have all
> different pricing ideas and the price most profitable to the bartender may be
> $4 and actually forego your business by not selling to you. That is why I don't
> play games because I see no value in them but the creators do. That is why so
> many people don't buy their software because the price on some is over what
> value they can gain from it. They view piracy as simpler than using free
> software which is or should actually be targetted at exactly those people who
> don't fall within the demand market of the proprietory producers.

What I would prefer is a more flexible pricing scheme.  Say I really
like Windows Commander ($28 shareware), and I think it's worth $50
to me.  I pay $50 and get the rights to use it.  Now say you kinda
like Windows Commander, but you only think it's worth $30.  Then
there's Person X, who uses it once in a while, and thinks it's only
worth $5.  If you set the price hard at $30, you get 2 sales for
$60 total.  If you went with a $30 suggested price, but didn't
require it, you could get 3 sales for $85 total.

An interesting side note here.  If someone downloads some shareware
and starts using it, what happens at the end of 30 days when their
"time is up"?  Well, they're going to either a. delete it as you
asked, b. continue to use it for free anyways, or c. pay you and
continue to use it.  All three options cost you exactly the same,
since they already used your bandwidth to download the software,
browse the online docs, etc.  However, the more people you can get
into category c, the more you can make back.

I'll write up some more later... =)

-- 
Edward Glowacki				glowack2@msu.edu
GLLUG Peon  				http://www.gllug.org
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
                -- Jules de Gaultier