Re: [MacPerl] Distributables?

["Raffael Cavallaro" <raffael@mediaone.net>]

>From: Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>

> 3.  If you do ask a fee, most people who would pay will pay regardless of how
>     hidden the code is, because people who would pay are those who pay not
>     because they have to but because they want to, and those that don't want
>     to will pirate it if they can, which usually is not too hard

This last bit is simply not true. Most people who actually buy
software don't even know what a "warez site" is. That's what I meant when I
said that users have different skill levels. You greatly overestimate the
skills of the average software customer if you think s/he knows how to
download and install wares.

Most lost sales don't come from wares (wares losers are never going to buy
software anyway). They come from people borrowing their friends or
co-workers' installation disks. If you make this harder, (with a password,
or by requiring the CD be in the drive while running) then you lose fewer
sales.

Moreover, if a user pays $200 for a software package, how eager are they to
lend the installation CD to some co-worker so that they, the legitimate
licenceee/owner, can risk being caught (I know, it's a vanishingly small
risk, but it looms large in many people's minds anyway), and their co-worker
can get for free, what they had to pay $200 for? Answer: not very. This "I
paid, so should you" attitude reduces copying too.

You need to be more aware of the target market for most software. It isn't
people who can compile from code, or who frequent wares sites. It's people
like your aunt, who consider it a great accomplishment that they can use a
computer at all without crashing it, or losing important data.

raf

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