Re: Innovation in software (was RE: IBM loses its Unix license -Jun. 16, 2003

["Michael Naughton" <mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>Hans Boldt wrote:
> > Now I'm no economist, but I know that the cost of some commodity is
> > based primarily on the cost to reproduce an instance of that
> > commodity. Computer software takes that fundamental principal to the
> > extreme, and the cost of reproduction can be essentially zero for the
> > manucturer.
>
>There's got to be some flaw in this logic, Hans. C

Perhaps the "flaw" (if there is one) is that computer software may not be
a commodity in that sense. It may be more like works of art. If I produce
and record a musical work, would I want the cost to a potential buyer to
simply be the cost of  burning a copy on a CD? If I make a drawing, should
the cost be simply the charge to run it through a copy machine? The
reasoning basically is that although it may cost next to nothing to
reproduce the completed work, it may have cost quite a bit more to produce
the work in the first place, and therefore the final cost of the
reproduction should reflect that.

Of course, this brings up the whole issue of copyright, which is a whole
other can of worms. . . . :-)

Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx