I wrote: > The marginal cost of creating a copy of a piece of software is close > enough to zero as makes no difference. And it is a _copy_ that the > seller buys.
David Kastrup writes: > Providing access to a copy is a service that has non-zero value in the > market. Even if one knows that the copy might be found somewhere cheaper > if one hunts long enough for it. That service has both value and cost. The marginal cost of producing the copy itself, however, is still nearly zero. Thus the software industry is a service industry, even for those participants who don't write any software. There really are no software "products". Even Microsoft makes most of its money providing access to copies, though it uses copyright to artificially limit access and contorts itself to make the service look like a product. -- John Hasler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dancing Horse Hill Elmwood, WI USA _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
