On 20/07/12 03:30 AM, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
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.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
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.