jpa@newcastle.ac.uk (John Aspden) (05/10/88)
Recently it was reported that FullWrite had finally hit the shelves of Computer stores in the USA, but that the boxes were adorned with stickers saying something to the effect "For sale in US and Canada only - not for export". It was speculated that this may be because the program contained an implementation of the DES encryption standard. The reason would seem to be much less to do with "national security" and much more with maintaining good profits. In the May edition of the UK MacUser magazine there are a series of pieces under the title "PRICING! THE MacUser OPEN FORUM", where various contributors give their views on the fact that software sold in the UK costs almost double the price of the same items in the States. The following is quoted (without permission) from a piece by the Managing Director of (probably) the largest UK Macintosh software importer and distributor. (He begins by explaining the selling chain - the US vendor sells to the (usually sole) UK distributor, who sells on to the Apple dealers, who then sell to the customer. He then tries to justify the price difference by explaining that the UK distributor has to do the product marketing, unlike in the USA where the marketing is usually done by the software publisher. "Bootleggers" disrupt this scheme by "selling a program on the strength of the legitimate distributor's marketing efforts". This reduces the demand for the product from the authorised (and more expensive) distributor, which forces the price up further since with lower sales volume the per-item profit needs to be bigger to maintain the same total income....). The article continues... "Without properly supported software for the Macintosh, Apple dealers will find it harder and harder to persuade customers to take the Macintosh seriously. Apple UK will suffer, as less Macintoshes are sold (and why not bootleg the computers as well?). The whole Macintosh community will suffer. If parasites are left to flourish, eventually they can kill the organism they feed off. Then the parasites die as well. That's scant consolation. "This is one reason why we decided earlier this year, in conjunction with some of our American suppliers, that the time had come to change the rules of the game. "In America, some of our suppliers are changing their contracts with distributors to prohibit export sales. Non-removable stickers will start to appear on the outside of packages declaring them for sale in the United States only. Enlightened publishers realise that it is not in their interest , any more than yours or ours, for bootleggers to get away with it. "Here in the UK, we are also making changes. Soon, you will be seeing stickers on the boxes containing our software informing you that they are the official UK versions. The stickers themselves will be serialised to prevent others forging them." So there you have it. Any comments? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John Aspden, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England JANET: jpa@uk.ac.newcastle.cheviot UUCP : jpa@cheviot.UUCP ARPA : jpa%cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk PHONE: +44 91 232 9233
flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) (05/11/88)
The supplier, incidently, is MacSerious. I have already suggested we boycott them until they stop this nonsense. From: flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) Reply-To: sheridan@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk or_perhaps_Reply_to: flash@cs.qmc.ac.uk
jmunkki@santra.UUCP (Juri Munkki) (05/13/88)
In article <3122@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk> jpa@newcastle.ac.uk (John Aspden) writes: >Recently it was reported that FullWrite had finally hit the shelves of >Computer stores in the USA, but that the boxes were adorned with >stickers saying something to the effect "For sale in US and Canada >only - not for export". It was speculated that this may be because the >program contained an implementation of the DES encryption >standard. > >"Here in the UK, we are also making changes. Soon, you will be >seeing stickers on the boxes containing our software informing you >that they are the official UK versions. The stickers themselves will be >serialised to prevent others forging them." > >So there you have it. Any comments? Yeah, I have some comments... I place I work at is the national supplier of microcomputer software to universities. This means that we support some programs very well. It also means that we always try to get the program quickly and cheaply. I recently contacted Ashton Tate in order to get a site license of FullWrite for our university. The first thing they did was send my message to the Finnish representative of Ashton Tate. Now this company isn't really interested in the Macintosh. In Finland the Macintosh is very popular in universities, but it will still take some time for businesses to catch on. They really weren't interested in even selling anything to us... Actually what they did was send me a letter asking me to contact my boss (they saw that the request came from a university and tried to forward me to the national microcomputer software support) My boss then tried to talk with them and get us some version to use... Nothing has happened in Finland since then. I would really like to make FullWrite the Macintosh standard in Finnish government offices and universities, but if it is not available, we'll probably have to recommend MS Word and try to live with a probably bad decision. There seems to be some confusion inside Ashton Tate too. A few weeks after they had forwarded my request to Finland, they sent me a FAX asking me to contact Ashton Tate in Holland. The Dutch Ashton Tate naturally has been very silent after I contacted them. I know the Finnish market is very small, but it still is a part of a significant market: the international market. The Finnish software vendors offer virtually no quality support for their products. They often send their customers to us even when they know that we can officially give our help only to universities. PC programs are another story: some programs are so hard to use or otherwise requires a lot of support. This support must be provided in order to sell the program and this support exists in Finland. So, is Ashton Tate interested in making a deal with us? We are no longer really interested in trying to get Jersoft interested. Disclaimer: The opinions here are mine and might not reflect those of my employer. Juri Munkki Helsinki University of Technology Computing Centre Microcomputing Support Division Otakaari 1, Room Y250A SF02150 Espoo, Finland Internet: jmunkki@santra.hut.fi Bitnet: jmunkki@fingate.bitnet Telex: 125161 htkk sf TeleFAX: +358 0 465 077