[NTLUG:Discuss] I got this offer

[jeremyb@univista.com]

>   Legal is not the issue to me, as many a good lawyer seems to be able 
to get around that.  If law is all we have to protect us, then we are 
lost.  I suggest that we each hope/wish/meditate/prey for a bit better 
than that, along with the fortitude to do the right thing ourselves.
  

    Well said.

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred James
To: discuss at ntlug.org
Sent: 7/2/02 10:55 PM
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] I got this offer

Greg
As usual, besides slow I am never quite as clear as I think I am. 
Regardless of numbers I do not support pirating, corporate or otherwise.

  Legal is not the issue to me, as many a good lawyer seems to be able 
to get around that.  If law is all we have to protect us, then we are 
lost.  I suggest that we each hope/wish/meditate/prey for a bit better 
than that, along with the fortitude to do the right thing ourselves.


The poke at my employer's email filtering may have been a bit dense - 
they are putting in the effort to keep the collective employee nose from

being distracted by the Internet, from its appointed grind stone.  But I

receive more junk mail at that address than I do at my personal address,

which is unfiltered.

Best to you, and all.
Fred


Greg Edwards wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>>
> 


-- 
"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates


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