Re: In Retrospect.....

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

userid@psu.edu (kenneth) wrote:

>I have not posted here a long time.  Piracy is a fact of life.  I know
>I didn't pay for all my shareware fees.  But I also released some
>shareware, so I didn't feel so bad.  

Not that it is right, but not paying all shareware fees is a far
cry from putting up a beta of a commercial program on an ftp
server...the latter kills chances of release of the program.
Why do that?

>I released a math library last year that doubled or tripled the integer
>performance of the GS. I sold one copy and that person was extremely
>happy with the product.  Piracy had nothing to do the non-success of
>that product.  The market was gone!

There's a difference...releasing shareware for the GS is hard.
You won't get much feedback.  On the other hand, if Texas II,
Shareware Solutions II, Seven Hills or Byte Works releases a new
program that can make the GS do something that it can,
there is still a market for 'em.  I am sure Lemmings sold more
than 1 copy.  I am sure the Quick Click series programs sold
more than 1 copy.  It is these commercial programs where
piracy hurts...if a beta of a yet to be released commercial
program like SoundSmith Pro gets pirated, you won't ever get
the release of the real thing because the developer would be
pissed off.  So why do that?  I'm not even thinking so much
of the user who steals a copy for his own use...at least that
makes some sense although it is still piracy.  But WHY would
someone want to put a beta on an ftp server for everyone to
grab, resulting in the actual program never being completed?

By the way...have you investigated teaming up with Mike
Westerfield to bundle your math library with the Orca languages?
That should help it sell better...