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Number : 104 Date : 2001-05-20 Author : james sadler Subject : Re: XXCOPY, Freeware for personal users only Size(KB) : 5
--- Kan Yabumoto wrote: > > Let me continue what I was saying without pretense. > > Why am I so concerned about increasing the > membership (or more bluntly > the new XXCOPY users)? That's because my company, > Pixelab is not > a non-profit organization. I received a lot of > thanks for making > XXCOPY available as a freeware. I'm not doing this > for the sake > of being just nice to other guys. I'm not Larry > Wall (the father > of Perl) who had a well-paying job at JPL. His > contribution to > the computing community is enormous. And, his > product is still > completely free for personal or commercial usage. > And, I'm doing > XXCOPY, a mere file copying program. Nevertheless, > XXCOPY is > basically the way my company has to support itself. > > While I appreciate the thanking notes that I receive > very much, > they do not let me pay the bills. The whole premise > is that the > good reputation of XXCOPY spreads among the freeware > users. And, > probably every 1000 freeware users, there will be > one IT > professional who thinks that it may be useful in > his/her company. > That's what we are counting on. > > XXCOPY is not a complete freeware with unconditional > free usage. > I decided to make it available for free for personal > use as a > freeware which I felt was the only way to promote > the product. > I still feel that was a correct decision. From day > one, I made > my intention clear on our web site that I will > reserve the right > to terminate the freeware status. > > At this point, I don't feel it should become a > typical shareware > which allows only a 30 days or so for trial and then > either you > pay or stop using it. Actually, for corporate > users, XXCOPY is > like a shareware (trial-ware) which has a free trial > period and > beyond that, a commercial user must acquire a > license. I intend > to keep the freeware status for personal user as is. > > So far, XXCOPY has been listed in most major > shareware/freeware > listing sites on the Internet where most of you > heard about it. > Some of you have heard in various newsgroups. > > One thing I feel bad about being quite generous in > answering all > Emails from freeware users. When I encourage > corporate users to > become a paid licensee, one of the benefits that I > promise is to > give a priority tech support. But, when I give free > tech support > to everybody, the paid customers would rightly feel > "cheated". > > As the conclusion here, let me confess that XXCOPY > as freeware > is a gimmick. My true intention was to make money > by selling > XXCOPY to corporate users (and very serious users > who consider > XXCOPY a bargain). Everything I do for XXCOPY and > its users > are motivated to make money. To do so, I need more > users. > This group is one vehicle to the ultimate goal. > But, as long > as I keep the freeware status intact for personal > usage, I > believe a win-win situation is attainable. > > Kan Yabumoto > > ======================================================================== > > Kan, I can deeply appreciate the pains that you are going through in trying to make a living in the shifting sands of the electronic world. The entire industry is at the pivot point of a huge shift. There is a battle of epic proportions revolving around a philosophical issue. Exactly how do we pay for intellectual work? Napster gets the public eye. But the problem is way deeper than that. Many folks in the computer industry sort of understand that with the free flow of information entire models of society tumble. Government can become irrelevant, for example. The free software community is vibrant and growing by leaps and bounds. The Linux folks are doing an astounding job. Really it is a double problem. For example computers working on genetic sequencing are causing the developement of products that will save hundreds of millions of lives and the dollars involved are stellar. The situation is such that the pay checks for the research scientists are sort of trivial. The pay checks for the computer guys who make the research practical are also trivial. But the drug companies are making hundreds of billions of dollars because they have the grip of death on the poor folks who must buy the drugs created by the work of others. So just how can we take money from the end consequence of the work of many and get it back to the guys who built the tools (soft ware) to get the job done? What I see going on is huge companies using soft ware writers like toilet paper. These guys are forced to work under insane conditions and when a project is finished they are flushed down the drain. There have been a legion of guys like Tommy Cain who wrote gtreat shareware for DOS who probably made next to zero money for their work and then the industry just walks away from them. We need to make sure that people get paid for their work but we also need to make sure that the public gets the tools in their hands even if they are too poor to pay. I am sure that we have potentially brilliant code writers out there who are isolated by their own poverty. This is triple sad in that the industry needs millions of skilled programmers. There is just so much that can be done and so little time to do it. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/
This message if part of XXCOPY's message Archive. The archive contains all the messages posted at Yahoo!Groups: XXCOPY.