On Tue, 5 Sep 2006, Mike Miller wrote: > On Tue, 5 Sep 2006, Jack Ungerleider wrote: > >> On Mon, September 4, 2006 10:58 pm, markring40 at ippimail.com wrote: >> >>>> Mike Miller wrote: >> >>>> The thing I want to address is the notion that such distribution >>>> damages the company that produces the software. That isn't clear. >>>> When a program that usually costs $500, say, is being distributed for >>>> free on the internet in violation of the license, many people will >>>> download the program for free who would never have paid $500 for a >>>> properly-licensed copy. So, a company that might have expected to >>>> sell 2,000 copies at $500 apiece might find that 1,000,000 copies were >>>> freely downloaded on the web against their wishes. But that means >>>> that 998,000 more people are using their program than would have used >>>> it otherwise. Are they worse off? Well that depends on how much they >>>> sell. It could hurt them, but it also could help them. It depends. >>> >>> Mike I think you've answered your own question. The company in your >>> example has lost $499 Million dollars!! That would definately hurt >>> them. It would not help them. > > > Jack-- > > Read it a little more carefully. I said that the 998,000 users couldn't > afford the program and would never have bought it. Oops. Sorry -- "markring" not Jack!! Jack had it right. Mike