smith@NRL-AIC.ARPA (04/20/84)
From: Russ Smith <smith@NRL-AIC.ARPA>
RE: software piracy
Sell software cheap...REALLY CHEAP...like a buck or two (max) over the
going price of a bare disk (8", 5.25", or whatever). Put the documentation,
if any, right on the disk. Get people used to disposable software. Cut
production costs to the bare minimum. There are excellent books in
paperback, there are horrible books in paperback. Same applies to
software (witness JRT + TURBO (not necessarily in that order)). Don't
worry about pirates for the stuff planned for the MASS market (the vast
majority of software sold is just that). DON'T support the stuff you
sell this way. Caveat Emptor! Updates and fixes are equivalent to new
editions. If you must, make a disk protection scheme which is just
time consuming to break ("S**t! I'll just buy a copy!"). Market more
expensive packages as hardbacks are...nice wrapping, maybe a pretty
bound manual or two. DON'T support them, either! (It might be nice to
make sure the more expensive versions don't have a lot of mistakes...but
I've got an awful lot of >$30 CMSC books that have more recent editions...).
For the REALLY-EXPENSIVE-STUFF, track down and sue the pants off the
pirates, after all, it's worth it.
Flames to the net, please, NOT to me directly...
Half sincerely yours,
Russ <Smith@nrl-aic>
(It's a slow Friday...)ech@spuxll.UUCP (05/08/84)
"Software is overpriced" is getting to be a tiresome theme. Wise up, folks, and use your heads; Alex Pournelle TRIED to explain it to you, but you apparently missed the point. Let me make an alternative suggestion. Don't buy Microsoft software -- buy Microsoft STOCK. Those alleged obscene profits will pay you equally obscene dividends, which will defray the cost of your own software addiction. Better yet, let's ALL buy Microsoft, and elect a "people's" board of directors who will forego those sinful profits and sell the software CHEAP. A $10 Multiplan will either blow out those other profiteers, or will at least get them to cut their prices. Hell, we can cut development and support costs to zero: us kind-hearted hacker stockholders will contribute our efforts gratis cuz we love the society so much. But there is an even easier way; all you need is a floppy and a stamp. You can bet that word processor sales for the C64 took a steep drop after the January COMPUTE!s Gazette. Why don't you take your next generation spreadsheet, or better your improved Lotus-lookalike, and sell it to COMPUTE! for the price of an article? The couple of hundred they give you will just be icing on the satisfaction you'll get from putting the fatcats out of business and giving state-of-the-art software to the people. With COMPUTE!s new disk distribution (one/month, $70/year, and not copy-protected), any group of 6 people can painlessly acquire your pride and joy for less than $1 over floppy cost. A dream come true! Oh gosh, I just got an even BETTER idea! (really on a roll, here!). Why don't you send ME your floppy? I'll talk to you on the phone, and write the documentation FOR you! No ugly prose to keep you away from writing that dynamite code! I'll do the negotiation with Microsoft -- err, COMPUTE! -- for you, and everything! Trust me, I'll take care of EVERYTHING... =Ned=