Waging War on Business

[Alan Dayley]

-------Original Message-------
From: Darrell Shandrow <nu7i@azboss.net>
Sent: 02/12/03 07:13 AM
To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: Re: Waging War on Business
--[clip]--
> I think that part of the reason for the high prices has to do 
> with software piracy.  The industry is trying to figure in the 
> costs of such piracy and is passing those costs along to 
> legitimately licensed users.

I have been curious about this argument for a long time and perhaps this is the forum to ask.  This is not a troll!

How does software piracy "cost" software makers anything?

I am not suggesting that piracy is acceptable.  It is not.  I just don't see how a unlicenced copy of "ApplicationPlus" costs AcmeSoft anything.  For that copy they did not have to print manuals, stamp a CD, make a box, process shipping or, if they track users correctly, provide support.

(On proof reading I can see that tracking users to provide support only to legitimate license holders is a cost.  Partial answered my own question.)

IF you assume that every person that has an unlicenced copy would have bought a ligitimate copy if the unlicenced one was not possible, one could point to lost sales.  However, based on my experience, most of the time if making an illegitimate copy is not possible or convenient, most people do without the program rather than go buy a licenced copy.  ie. 1,000 unlicenced copies does NOT equal 1,000 lost sales.

I would think that a very simplified profitablity calculation for AcmeSoft is:

(cost of producing software) / (number of sales expected) = (single license cost)

But what you are saying is that the calculation is something like:

[ (cost of producing software) + ("cost" of pirated copies) ] / (number of sales expected) = (single license cost)

So, back to my original question:  How does software piracy "cost" the software producer anything that increases the cost of a ligitimate license?

Alan