RE: Design principles and ethics

[Christopher Nelson]

> > Obviously, they don't.
> 
> Not at all obvious to me.  They did get paid before copyright existed.

Not really.  They had patronage, which wasn't exactly getting paid.  It
was kind of like a benevolent form of slavery.
 
> > Which means that they will only do things like that in their spare 
> > time, while having to make a living doing something else.
> 
> Some may, others may not.  The same as it is today.

If you cannot make a small, *reasonable* per-copy income, you must make
a much larger up-front income.  Say, for example, that I require
$50,000US a year in order to pay my bills and have a little left over.
This is an arbitrary sum for the sake of argument.

I can either sell 5,000 copies of my product at $10 apiece, or else I
must have someone pay me the bulk sum of $50,000.  The problem is, who
is going to pay that?  In a few cases perhaps a corporation will pay me
to do that because the product is useful for them.

For small companies, though, who's basic product is a program that does
something useful for you, or an artist like a musician who creates
something you like to hear, no one is going to "sponsor" the development
of that work, unless they are interested in you or the area of focus.
This also means that the "backer" has to have some income independent of
your works.

I just don't see that as viable.  I obviously don't support people
charging outrageous prices for things, nor do I support piracy.  If
people were more balanced, and prices were more reasonable, IMHO, piracy
wouldn't be effective.

> > There are models which work well with software, but not things like 
> > music.  What, a musician is going to charge for support services in 
> > case a person is musically incompetent, but still wise enough to 
> > realize that they need help?
> 
> Yes, of course.  It is sometimes called teaching, sometimes 
> it is called a concert (or a gig).  Sometimes it is a 
> composition that is needed for a special purpose, for example 
> for a mass.

You should look into concert revenue.  By and large, the revenue
generated from a concert is barely enough to pay for the concert.  It
doesn't provide extended income, that is, enough to provide income for
the artist to spend some time writing new songs and recording them, and
then giving a concert again.

-={C}=-