Re: Novell & Microsoft Settle Largest BBS Piracy Case Ever

[Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>]

On Tue, 16 Jan 1996, Anonymous wrote:

> jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu (Jon Lasser) wrote:
> > End of goverments = decline (but not end) of software markets?
> 
> It's already happening anyway.  In a few years (if not today) Microsoft is
> going to be hard pressed to come up with excuses why someone should pay $90
> for Doze-95 when they can get a Linux CDROM for less than $20 (or ftp it
> for free).  With WINE and DOSEMU, that Linux system will run most of the
> same software too.  Willows software recently released their own windoze
> emulator for Linux for practically nothing (there is a small fee for
> commercial use, free otherwise).

Hogwash. WINE isn't nearly finished, and DOSEMU won't run a lot. They 
certainly won't run the newer 32-bit applications that MS wrote to 
require DDE and other stuff.

> Look at Netscape, giving away their browser for free and how Microsoft
> finally gave in and did the same because they couldn't sell theirs.

Netscape does not give away its browser for free, or at least they don't
intend to. You're supposed to pay for it if you use it for anything other
than educational or non-profit org use (not non-commercial use -- for
personal non-commercial use, you're supposed to pay). Of course this 
isn't very tightly enforced.
 
> Selling software is going to become practically impossible within a few
> years, and prosecuting piracy will become even more fruitless.  Rather,
> more and more companies will give the software away for free, and sell
> their expertise.
> 
> Sure, they will still package it nicely in a box to sell it to corporate
> types who are afraid of ftp, but what they're really selling is not the
> software but the tech support number.

Have you ever tried tech support?

Microsoft has never offered toll-free tech support as a matter of policy. 
You get a limited amount of support via a toll call to Redmond. Other 
companies are only a little better.

People still buy software, and a lot of it.

> Companies like Red Hat and Walnut Creek are doing brisk business selling
> cdroms full of software that you can get for free.  You can search the net
> for interesting stuff for months on end, or you can get all the best stuff
> on one disk from them for twenty bucks.
> 
> And look at Sun Microsystems - they're giving away all their software for
> free.  But when someone wants a reliable network server, who are they
> going to call?  Sun.  Software doesn't sell, but expertise does, and
> giving away well-written software is an excellent way to demonstrate your
> expertise to a large audience.
> 
> The concept of copyright is pretty much dead; the free market has invented
> new solutions.

I agree that copyright is dying, or should die, but I am not convinced
that we have a solution. 

-rich