On 20/07/12 03:30 AM, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
On Jo, 19 iul 12, 22:50:25, Celejar wrote:
Quite true - and completely irrelevant to my point. I don't deny that
money can be made with FLOSS, just that it's pointless to try to sell
copies of one's software if it's freely copyable. The examples you give
are all of models other than the straightforward sale of licenses or
copies.
IMO a business model that relies on the possibility to sell copies that
basically cost nothing to produce is broken.
Kind regards,
Andrei
Actually, probably not. Take the music and film industries (please).
Stamping a disc costs almost nothing yet they sell them for outrageous
amounts. Like software, the real work is in the source, not the medium.
You can listen to the music for nothing on the radio or television or
even record it yourself. Still neither the film nor music industries are
suffering from lack of sales.
It often amounts to a balance between convenience and cost. Most people
would rather buy a disc or download from legal sources than hunt down
ways to pirate them. Of course the entertainment disc license isn't a
free license. However, I suspect that more people would buy them if they
actually did use a free license instead of treating their customers like
criminals.
Microsoft continues to make money on their office suite despite
LibreOffice being a free download. The same can be said about its
operating systems. It's certainly not because they have a better product
either. It's more because the U.S. doesn't enforce its anti-trust laws.
So how do these profitable industries make money selling products that
cost nothing to produce? By convincing the public that they should buy
them - either under claims of supporting the artist or by using market
dominance to get their products out.
If products like LibreOffice had the same market share as Microsoft's
product, the numbers of people donating to it would give it lots of revenue.
Don't forget also, Microsoft's Internet Explorer broke into the market
by being free as in beer at a time when Netscape dominated with a paid
product.
As for Celejar's point about selling licenses - he's wants to make money
only from direct sales. That's his problem. In every business you have
to look for ways to make money. Direct sales is just one method and its
a method that isn't always the best model.
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