Peter Westlake (peter@harlequin.co.uk) wrote on 21.12.94:
>>What, like software? It costs virtually nothing to make as many copies
>>as you like. Yet for some reason software companies still insist on
>>charging money for it, often in rather large amounts.
Right.Ian_Taylor@a2w.maus.de (Ian Taylor) replied on 24.12.94:
>One reason that I described before is that production cost is only
>one minor part of todays product cost.
New software is expensive (for example, a word processor with all the latest features might cost $200) because only a few companies have had time to write it. However a text editor (state of the art ten years ago) can be obtained as freeware now.
Similarly drug companies charge a lot if patents are still current. Once they expire, the competition from "generic substitutes" can be intense. Think how little it costs to buy a bottle of aspirins today.
I guess the same thing may happen with nanotechnology.
Happy exceptions to the rule that high quality up-to-date software must be expensive include the Linux operating system and Emacs editor. Here is an example of a short version of the Free Software Foundation licence:
Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions, provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
Perhaps benevolent nanotechnology experts could make their designs available in a similar way.
God Bless You,
Sean
Sean Jackson, 3 Adams Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AD, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 1223 464 800 Fax: +44 1223 313 283