6/1/1982 low riding a high horseWhile I'm sure that neither you nor Mr. Brown wants an argument within the pages of Softalk, I cannot resist the impulse to comment on his letter in the April issue. I will be brief. First, it seems likely to me, although I do not know it for a fact that the expenses and markups affecting the price of software are not entirely dissimilar from those in the book publishing industry. Certainly the author of a book spends an equal if not greater period in laboring over the work. Yet book prices are generally five or ten dollars less than the prices charged for entertainment software. Nor does the author feel entitled in suing the purchaser who loans his book to a friend. Mr. Brown also seems to be saying that the motive impelling software authors is not the hope of profit, but pride in seeing their efforts used and enjoyed. While I've no doubt that this is true in Mr. Brown's case, I very greatly doubt that it is typical. It seems to me in fact that the very nature of the microcomputer market at present is one which would tend to encourage entrepreneurism and the hunger to make a quick buck. The fact that there is so little shoddy product and dishonest dealing in this market is a tribute to those in business in it. Not that it is, any more than anyone, lily-white. Much of the game market is filled with products which, if not shoddy, are imitative, basically unimaginative and which do nothing to further the cause, if I can call it that, of personal computing.
Bob Crafts, Edgartown, MA - V2N10 Comments are closed.
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