Date   : Sat, 07 May 1983 22:08:00-PDT (Saturday)
From   : tekecs!andrew.Tektronix@rand-relay.arpa
Subject: Workman Assoc and public domain software

It is apparent that some INFO-CPM subscribers do not understand the
concept of public domain software.  It is not the case that anyone
possessing PD software is obligated to give it away, or to make it
available at cost.  The whole point of public domain is that anyone can
do with it as they please.

When I take my SCUBA tanks to be filled, I pay five dollars for a few
dozen pounds of air.  But, following unisoft!pertec's argument, air can
be gotten cheap!  Assume that the owner of the diving shop actually
pays someone to do the work of filling the tanks for $4.00/hour.  If it
takes six minutes to fill my tanks, that's 40 cents per customer.  But
isn't air in the public domain? .. Bojemoi, someone is ripping me off!

This of course totally ignores fixed costs.  Neither the local diving
shop nor Mr. Workman can operate without making regular payments of
rent, utilities, advertising, licensing, payments on capital equipment,
etc and gory etc.  (And that employee gets $4.00/hour whether or not
there's a customer in the shop.)  Last year I ran a software house,
selling my own (non-public domain) software, and, despite several thousands
of dollars in gross receipts, those fixed costs ran me four thousand into
the red.  (A half-page ad in last October's "Byte" cost $ 3,500.  That's a
lot of floppy disks.)

But all of this is beside the point.  Why should anyone be expected to
provide a product or a service without taking a profit?  And who
are you to tell someone that his profit is so unreasonable that he's
ripping you off?  The only definition of a reasonable price in a
capitalist society is the price that a reasonable number of customers
will pay.  If you don't like the price, don't pay it.

Altruistic programmers who desire that noone should ever have to pay money
for their software should not mark it "public domain", but should apply a
label such as "copyright (c) 1983 by joe blow; may be freely copied for
non-commercial purposes".  But they should understand that such software
will only be available through underground channels.  The novice who can't
afford a modem and hasn't the time to get involved with a user group may
never find out about your whiz-bang spelling checker, simply because nobody
will be motivated to tell him about it and give him the opportunity to
acquire it.

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!teklabs!tekecs!andrew)  [UUCP]
                       (andrew.tektronix@rand-relay)   [ARPA]