This continuing dispute reminds me, not a little, of those 13th-century controversies about whether in translation from point A to a remote point B angels pass through the intervening space.
Here much depends upon one's situation at acquisition-decision time. If one wants to use AppNew and finds that he must buy SupvrOld, which he does not currently possess or judge that he needs, in order to acquire AppNew, then AppNew is not free, even though no additional charge is made for it when SupvrOld is purchased. If, on the other hand, an owner of SupvrOld learns that AppNew is now available free to owners of SupvrOld like him, he may reasonably judge that AppNew would be free to him if he wished to obtain it. Some readers will be familiar with the notion of what economists call a sunk cost, e.g., the purchase price already paid---and in practical terms irretrievable---for a copy of SupvrOld; it is essential to useful discussion of issues like this one. --jg ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
