Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!cos!andrews From: andrews@cos.com (Andrew R. Scholnick) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Software Sales Strategies vs. Piracy Summary: The Computer Club Company "Fair" pricing Message-ID: <21585@cos.com> Date: 17 Aug 89 14:27:33 GMT References: <208@crash.cts.com> Organization: Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA Lines: 55 In article <208@crash.cts.com>, frankd@pro-pac.cts.com (Mike Snook) writes: > It's a shame that developers don't get their fair rewards for their time and > money. I want my software written by professionals, which means they have to > be able to make a living at it. Too many people are pirating software. > [...] > Why don't software developers adopt a similar strategy by selling programs > to stores that will rent them out for a fraction of their purchase price, and > take a royalty from every rental? Developers would make more money (possibly, > I haven't the time to make a federal study of it) and the general population > has an opportunity to obtain software WITH the manuals. There will of course > always be that elite group who will have no less than the original with the > original packaging either because of elitism or natural honesty. > > strictly opinion, strictly mine, go ahead and sue me I have no Money. Another approach has been adopted by the Computer Club Company. All software has an encoded, unique, serial number which is tracked by sale and updated (if sold through a store) when the registration card arrives. There is NO copy protection. The serial number is so the company knows who to sue if a pirated copy is found. Two encoding strategies are used, one for the serial number which is displayed at run-time, one for the (several) copies embedded in the code which are not directly accessed as data. They are encoded to make it more difficult to find (and alter or remove) them. NO SOFTWARE IS SOLD FOR MORE THAN $20. No matter how fancy. The two software products currently (Nancy, a spelling checker and Zelda, a print/merge utility) are both $16.95. Costs are kept low by using inexpensive (minimal) packaging and putting all documentation on disk. The theory here is that reasonably priced software wont be stolen, it will be purchased. So far this strategy seems to have worked. I know this for a fact. It's my family business. It is my opinion that any 'single disk' software product sold WITH printed documentation for more than $35 is price-gouging. An added $5 per extra disk is reasonable. I don't care how "useful" the product is or how much effort went into producing it, if it is a good product, you will profit at these prices. For complicated products which require some customer support, I believe the buyer should be given a small amount of free support, followed up by paid support if they desire it ($35-40/hr is good). Just my personal/business opinion. ;-) Please no flames... (a quick plug: The Computer Club Company is giving away a free -$10 value- Computer Club Foam Bat with each software purchase - for a limited time) The Computer Club Company EMail address (on USENet) is ...uunet!cos!amicc!ComputerClub ARS. -- - Andrew R. Scholnick @ Corp. for Open Systems, McLean, VA -- andrews@cos.com - {uunet, sundc, decuac}!cos!andrews -- Everything I write blame on me, NOT -- my employer. - "Adventure is when you toss your life on the scales of -- chance and wait for the pointer to stop." - M. Leinster (First Contact)