On 4/26/01 2:28 AM, "Jim Couch" <JamesBCouch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Much of the 'overpriced' portion of software is because of the fact that so
> much
> of it gets stolen instead of sold. The sad thing is, it costs as much to write
> a
> program that sells only 500f the copies that are used as it costs if 1000f
> them were sold. :(
I think you get a catch 22 situation here. Software prices are high because
of piracy, we can't reduce prices because there's too much piracy.
Yes software development is expensive. Yes piracy happens. Yes this means
that software prices are high. I don't think that the current model of high
prices to cover the costs of piracy is viable though. I think that in order
to break the cycle, the price of software has to come down. The cheaper the
software is, the less effort people will be willing to put into getting a
pirated copy of it.
Free software has no piracy (well possibly some depending on the terms of
the licence). Pay software has some piracy. Generally, the more expensive
the software, the more it's pirated. The question then is to find out where
there's a balance between price and piracy.
--
Andrew "Frugal" Dacey
frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tildefrugal.net/
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