From: Bert.Rozenberg@lekkerthuis.com   
      
   On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 21:12:24 -0400, Questman wrote:   
      
   > I think Bert was talking tongue-in-cheek - he doesn't WANT to go after   
   > people,  but he is saying that he will.   
      
   Actually, I was pretty darn serious about that. I had my lawyers   
   (successfully) going after software pirates in the past and I will do the   
   same in the future. Just like you don't accept if people walk into your   
   house and take away your stereo (just because you hardly use it), I will   
   never accept it when people steal something from me.   
      
   > It's incrementally easier for him to make money just selling it.   
   >   
   > Why ISN'T he selling it?  You have to understand, for a professional   
   > developer like Bert, he has a semblance of pride in his work.  He is not   
   > willing to sell it, for good money, and then not be able to support it.   
   > If he sells a copy of Major CD to a Sysop for, say, $150, and there's a   
   > problem, and he sold it without support, then his software, and he as a   
   > developer, gets a bad name.  It's better to not offer the product for a   
   > while until such time as either (a) he has time to do it right with   
   > support and updates, or (b) someone comes along and buys the rights, and   
   > supports it.   
      
   Ask any sysop from the past who started discussions with us (me and my   
   MBBS-business partner Frans) and they'll tell you we were arrogant bastards   
   because most of the time we didn't do business 'the American way'. Ask any   
   sysop or ISV from the past who did business with us and they'll tell you we   
   had the best products and the best support and were great guys to be with.   
   It has always been near to impossible for American sysops to understand   
   that we didn't care about the money (although we made a shitload of it). We   
   were in the MBBS business to have fun. Ask people about the Mountain Rose   
   party bus and you'll get some great stories. In the old days we've turned   
   down big $$$ business deals with banks, governments and big companies, just   
   because we thought it would be no fun. On the other hand I took a plane to   
   Chicago (on my own expense) to help a customer, because it was fun to help   
   that guy. I called customers back at my dime (2 dollar a minute in those   
   days) and spent an hour on the phone to help them to get MajorCD up and   
   running.   
      
   Although the Worldgroup/MBBS business has faded away, I'm still doing the   
   same thing: having fun and (accidentally) make a living with it. Last   
   weekend I spend a couple of hours scanning some MBBS-pages from old   
   magazines, because Rick asked me and I thought it would be fun to do.   
   Regarding my old products: I can't see what kind of fun it would be to make   
   the products available to people who don't mind stealing it if I don't make   
   it available.   
      
      
   --   
   Bert Rozenberg   
   Stop fighting Spam, Start Ignoring it.   
   http://www.spambright.com   
   Hey, it's not a good night unless you get a traffic cone! It's the   
   policewoman's helmet and the suspenders I don't understand!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)