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> Actually, many people have made livings--good ones--by giving away software.
> True, they ask for payments, but don't require it. The concept is called
> shareware, and has long provided quality alternatives to heavily marketed
> corporate produced software.
Name a company that is profitable and gives -all- their software away for free.
Yes, shareware and freebies are viable *marketing* tactics. They are not a
viable business strategies. Without income or the promise of income, there is
no incentive. This is business 101.
> I never said, nor would I advocate, people steal software (or anything
> else). To imply that was the argument here is disingenuous. The argument is
> that the fundemental assumption by companies is that everyone is a criminal
> until you prove otherwise. I maintain that this is a really crappy way to
> treat someone who has just shelled out dozens, hundreds, or thousands of
> their hard-earned dollars on your product. Monopolists get away with it
> because there are too few alternatives.
Hardly. We live in a country that is swimming with alternatives. There are
probably a dozen or so Linux variants available to you, as well as Mac and
Solaris UNIX. You have a virtually unlimited selection of software options.
As for stores, you have an overwhelming amount of choices. There are small
appliance stores, department stores, malls, ma & pa joints. Its absurd to think
that you have no choice. This is America, we are awash with choices. Just
because you don't like them doesn't mean they aren't there.
> In my case, I walk right by the Fry's door Nazis (and Best Buy and others as
> well). Once I leave the cash register, what I buy is mine and they have no
> legal right to search me or my property without probable cause.
Probably cause does not apply because this is a matter between a private
organization and an individual. Probably cause only applies between you and the
state.
You should read the "agreement" on the wall at Fry's. It basically says "if you
buy something here, you agree to let us look in your bag on the way out."
Retail companies are very much within their rights to stop "shrinkage."
Numerous legal cases against such practices have overwhelmingly ended with the
retailer winning.
Again, nobody is forcing you to shop at Fry's. If their business practices
offend you - shop elsewhere. Its the same with jobs. If you don't approve of
the business practices of your employer, you are completely free to quit and
get a job elsewhere.
> Meanwhile, Windows vs. Linux or Mac supports exactly what I have maintained:
> that product activation is used successfully only by monopolists who have a
> stranglehold on the market. If Windows had, say, a 40% or 50% share of the
> PC OS market, instead of the approximately 90% that it does, they would not
> be putting such barriers against its use in place.
Probably not. When a company has a big market share they have an incentive to
keep it. When a company has a small market share, they have an incentive to
enlarge it. This is marketing 101.
Companies who put barriers in place have the right to do so. There is no law
saying "corporations must make it easy for customers to buy their products."
You are not entitled to convenience.
Again, if these barriers to entry offend you, then do not purchase products
from those manufacturers. You are not forced to use those products.
> The fact that there are not always choices, or not good ones because a
> company has a stranglehold on a market, invalidates this argument. But then,
> you can say there are, I can say there aren't, and we both may be spitting
> into the wind.
Just because you don't like the alternatives doesn't mean companies are
therefore obligated to serve you. If you go to a mall and don't like any of the
stores there, the mall does not have some obligation to put in a store that you
like.
Convenience is not a right.
Andrew Plato
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