NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/bit/listserv/cdromlan/1966

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-23 | 2.5 KB

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From: [e-mail] (JENNIFER A. HEISE)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cdromlan
Subject: Re: OED/Licensing
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 23 Dec 92 20:12:54 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University
Lines: 38

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail].A
C.UK (A Grant) writes:
>> If some publishers were just as resonable with their electronic use
>> policies as they are with print policies, we'd all be much better off.
>
>The tragedy is that commercial software vendors have learnt, by bitter
>experience, that the less professional (i.e. staffed by academics rather
>than career systems programmers) parts of the academic computer user
>community are not always honest when it comes to licensing; this has long

The computer world is going to have to learn someday that the answer is not to
make things more difficult to copy, but make them easier to buy.  When
academics were expected to cough up $500 for a piece of software, they could
not justify being honest and ripped-off (Microsoft ain't in danger of failing,
kids; neither is Ashton-Tate.  Profits are being made.)  Fewer illegal copies
were made when cheaper "academic" versions came out; fewer still when site
licenses came out.  I can justify paying $75 for my copy of Microsoft Word for
the Mac, but $450 is almost 1/3 the price of my computer-- and more expensive
than a cheap word processor.
One of the simple rules of intellectual property is that the price of
producing it is fixed, no matter how many copies there are made (plus a teeny
markup for copying & distribution).  The more copies you sell, the cheaper the
per-copy production costs become.  If more people will buy at a lower price,
you can work it out so that your profits are ABOUT the same. Plus, you can
charge high prices to interpret your cruddy documentation (see DBASE), and
make a bundle.

Libraries, however, are in an all-the-market-will-bear situation, since there
are a limited number of libraries, especially libraries with CD systems. (So
what else is new? Never bend over at a publisher's convention.)
--
Jennifer Heise                           Net: [e-mail]
Reference Dept.,                         Phone: [phone]
Fairchild-Martindale Libraries #8A,  Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015
My opinions are my own. No one else would HAVE them anyway.

"The toad beneath the harrow knows
Exactly where each tooth-point goes;