[NTLUG:Discuss] I got this offer

[Greg Edwards]

Fred,

You asked and I was just going to keep out, but Monty then asked, so.

I'm one of those that make a living writing software.  While I don't 
like MS and the way that Mr. Bill does business, I agree with their 
pursuit of software pirates.

Just one quick example.  Say I write a software package that I sell for 
maybe $20 a per copy return.  Lets say that it cost me $250,000 to 
write. So I need to sell 12,500 copies to break even.  Now say my real 
market is 20,000 users for total sales of $400,000.  If my $20 copy is 
the only choice for users I have a chance.  However, if 50% of those 
users manage to buy pirate copies for $5 I'm out $200,000 and I'm out of 
business.  At the same time someone put $50,000 in their pockets for 
doing nothing.

OBTW, this cost to write is a very unrealistically small number and the 
per copy return is way higher than reality.

A side effect of buying pirated software is that the little guys who 
need every penny to grow get pushed out and since MS can afford the loss 
they gain even more market share.  Can you imagine Quicken being a fond 
memory because they weren't able to get a return on their work?

I'll get off my soapbox now ;)

Fred James wrote:

> 
> I showed the letter around work and was surprised at the fact that more 
> than one person thought it might be a good way for them to get some 
> cheap software.  And here I was, slow as ever, still puzzling over the 
> fact that our email filtering corporation had let this piece of obvious 
> spam through in the first place.
> 

> 
> MontyS at videopost.com wrote:
> 


>>
>> To all you code writers out there:  What is your take on this?
>>

>> Monty
>>
>> 

-- 
Greg Edwards <greg at nas-inet.com>