>> On the other hand, I could develop the whole product from 
>> scratch for 10Z
>> dollars, but now I'd have to sell it for $Z/10 dollars, 
>> 10 times as much. Of
>> course, the market won't support that price because 
>> end-users can get a 90%
>> solution for 1/10 the price.

> Missed point. In addition the end-users get 90% of the 
> solution for free
> along with the right to modify and redistribute.

>> So, as a result I don't build the product, and the 
>> end-users' lose the
>> ability to get a better solution to their problem at a 
>> reasonable cost. And
>> of course, I lose out on the opportunity to make a 
>> reasonable profit
>> building and selling the product.

I don't know who wrote the original in >> so I don't know 
who I'm offending so this isn't personal :-).

"If Microsoft made all their products free and let me write 
applications and distribute them AND a copy of Windows with 
them AND charge what they charge now for Windows then the 
world could have the benefit of my genius at a price that 
would make me rich, BUT The Rotters at Redmond [tm] won't 
let me do this so the world misses out on my genius".

Whether people charge you for their services and so prevent 
you saving the world OR insist that the world have free 
access to anything involving the sweat of their brow(s) and 
so prevent you saving the world you would be 
(understandably) unhappy. While this is understandable, in 
either case you are trying to get 100% of the gain from 10% 
of the work required for the solution. In selected cases the 
world may be a better place if you were allowed to do this 
but in most such examples the world would simply be a more 
lucrative place for those who were allowed to charge for the 
freely contributed work of others after adding a small 
component of their own. It's understandable why people would 
want to be allowed to do this, and the "Public Domain" 
category exists to allow this, and people do in fact 
explicitly release work as PD. The obvious solution is to 
base your 10% solution on a 90% PD foundation. That you will 
generally have problems trying to do so is interesting in 
this context (and I don't know what lessons can be drawn 
from it.)


        Russell

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