[Re: piracy and oss]

[Edward Glowacki]

Quoted from Daniel R . Kilbourne on Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 03:21:19PM -0400:
> Can you say dead horse? *thwack*

*thwack!* ;)

> Edward Glowacki extolled:
> > 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. 
> 
> No offense, but did you grow up in a fairy tale land? I know of
> pretty much no one that would pay more than suggested, let alone
> required, for anything. I really like Corvettes, and would be
> willing (if I could afford it) to shell out the $45000 or so to
> get one. But, show me a Corvette that says "MSRP $45000, please
> pay at least $10000, but all offers are accepted," and you damn
> well know I would give the dealer $1 and drive my ass home in the
> best deal ever on a new Corvette.

No fairy tale land, though I do think a lot about "wouldn't the
world be a better place if..."  =)

On a serious level though:

The difference between a Corvette is the incremental cost of
producing one more.  The incremental cost of one more Corvette
includes considerable amounts of metal, leather, plastic, etc.,
plus the labor (man or machine), space to build it, trucks to
transport it to the lot for sale, the time and money required to
do the paperwork, etc.  The incremental cost of one more license
of shareware is almost nil, since the customer would have already
downloaded the software (at your expense in bandwidth of course).
The only cost would be processing their registration, which could
also be almost nil if you have some automated system set up.  So
even if they only chip in $5 to say they're registered (and get
rid of annoying popup windows), you've still made a profit without
actually having to do anything.

Here's another question: Do you tip when you go to restaurants (the
kind where the waiters/waitresses serve you at the table, not
McDonalds... =P).  How much?  Why?  The answer *should* be "Yes,
10-20% (depending on the service), because it's customary."  You
don't *have* to tip, you *can* just walk out of the restaurant
having paid the exact amount for your bill.  When you do decide to
tip, you choose how much the waiter/waitress's service was worth
to you.  Bad service?  Leave almost nothing, encourage them to do
better next time.  Good service?  20% lets them know they're on
the right track.  The amounts are set by custom, and while it may
be rude not to tip, it's entirely legal.  Why wouldn't that work
with software?  You like the program, pay full price.  You don't
use it much but still think it's good, pay a token amount that says
so.  Hate it, leave nothing.  Why?  Because it's customary (just
not yet... =P ).

Note that most of this revolves around consumer products.  The
corporate world is much different, and "try before you buy" often
means paying for a dozen copies for some employees to test before
rolling it out to 10,000 seats corporation-wide. 


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