purpleZ
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 Re: Perhaps I really wasn't that clear in my comments ...
quote:
Originally posted by tjd414
I didn't mean to imply that companies should invite competition, per se. But to cripple the choice in the market because you are the biggest company on the block smacks of what we don't want in the marketplace ... monopolies ... actual, or due to their size and weight, for all intents and purposes serve as a monopolies. MS is the bully, Apple tries and Linux is pushing hard. If Linux wasn't "free," MS would have crushed them years ago, just to keep a competitor out of the market.
I agree with you on DateBk5 ... it's a great program and based on users on this forum I am undergoing the trial. But I will buy it, not copy from somewhere, when the time comes.
So, you've never copied an article (or printed it out from the net) to use? There are probably disclaimers ... but if it is a bad thing ... take the copiers out of the libraries. From a cost and time standpoint it would be illogical to copy a whole book or magazine ... in the end why not just buy it, the cost is going to be the same. As for the idea of taking the code, improving on it and selling it ... well, that's the whole idea behind Linux. Red Hat took the code, improved on it and now they sell their products. If someone else takes it and improves on it and sells it for less than RH, then RH will have to respond ... either by improving their product or reducing the price they charge. As far as generic drugs go, well, the company had the market to themselves for 17 years ... and they usually are the ones that make the generics or have an agreement for manufacture anyway.
I don't understand the (Trust me, I'm a...) comment you made. I know folks in the drug industry and even after all R&D costs for all their drugs are paid back, the profits are huge. They are laughing all the way to the bank. When someone is sick, and their medicine costs $1,000 per month, we really need to examine the prices charged ...
No, I wouldn't be shocked about how much they spend on advertising ... it's an obscene amount. But my question remains ... why are they advertising to the public (Ask your doctor about the xxxxx pill)? Shouldn't they just advertise to medical professionals? Hey, here's an idea, the money they save on advertising could go to reducing the R&D costs and/or cost of the medicine ... nah, it would go to ... more profits.
IBM has tons of competitors (Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, Sony, HP and the list goes on) and they all make money ... what about Microsoft? It's not a reliable comparison.
But the bottom line is that I agree with your stance ... RIAA has chosen a way to deal with piracy ... a little draconian, IMHO, but it is ther choice.
I don't understand this comment though, "The Handspring email app was my birthright!" Could you explain it to me ... small words, please ... I've been up too long trying to get this project done!
If Microsoft wasn't around, Apple would be "the bully". There's no room for altruism in business. The only way to change the situation is to come up with a better/cheaper product than whatever is currently dominant. That's what the Linux dreamers are hoping for now. (And probably will be hoping for a long time yet to come.)
DateBk5 was just an example - the best I could come up with - about how unreasonable piracy can be. It's a fantastic, complex app (one of the main reasons I've stayed with PalmOS), has a responsive, enthusiastic developer supporting it, updates are provided free to registered owners and costs only $25. On top of this, the profits from its sale go to a charity. Despite this, the DateBk5 developer has been victimized by piracy since the app was originally released. If an app like this is pirated, it's amazing any developer can make a buck in this kind of environment.
The pharmaceutical industry is a very complicated question that I won't attempt to explain further here. I will let you know that drug companies now advertise directly to patients... because it works. They have shown that it is more cost effective to target patients directly than trying to influence doctors because patients are more easily manipulated. Drug companies have studies showing that a high percentage of doctors find it easier to simply write patients a prescription for whatever drug they come in demanding (because of e. g. a newspaper ad) than spend the time explaining to the patient why that drug might not be the best choice for them. Sad, but true. That's why most countries outside the U.S. have tight restrictions on how drug companies can advertise.
The RIAA is another issue, but again, if consumers expect that everything should be free, who do they think is going to provide the content?
The "The Handspring email app was my birthright!" quote was a weak attempt at sarcasm, but that's how some of the posters here almost seem to view Sprint's failure to include the app.
Ok, that's enough ranting for one day (year?). The only major issue we didn't cover was nuclear weapons - maybe in another thread? 
I thank the moderators here for their recent posts making it clear that warez will not be permitted on Treocentral. Now let's all get back to talking about Treos!
Last edited by on 11-03-2003 at 11:39 PM
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11-03-2003 06:25 PM
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