hehe... good reply, PolarBear!
Just to throw in a comment...
First a disclaimer: Yes, piracy is wrong, and yes I own all my VSL. Also, in the case of VSL, the price is totally justified when you consider the enormous financial outlay that this company has made to create such a brilliant product -- from hiring musicians, editors, and programmers, right up to building their own studio!!! (Still makes my head spin...) There is no question, in this case, of an inflated price based on a sort of "secret code" philosophy.
With that out of the way, there's also much to be said for the theory behind open-source development, which strives to significantly lower development costs by "open-sourcing" large parts of the code used in the final program. This way, a great deal of the code can be written (at least in theory) at little or no expense to the company which is proposing the final software package, thus lowering costs to the end user. As an example, I've got my Linux machine running a server perfectly efficiently, and legally, at very little cost to myself (at least in software). Obviously, this is the whole idea with Linux. Mind you, it can be a real pain in the ass to get running, which is, of course, the "down side" to almost all current open-source software.
But the basic idea thrown about by the open-source community is that the philosophy of "we did it first" or "secret code" software is a large contributor to the massive expense of producing many of the commercial products we see today. They feel that piracy will be around forever, so perhaps it is time for developers to start shifting their thinking with regard to the secrecy of their ideas, and start making use of the absolutely massive "work force" available to them in the open-source community. It's not that piracy is justified, but rather that it is, at least partly, a symptom of secrecy.
Now don't burn me alive... This is neither a fact, nor my personal opinion (though I do see the sense in it). it's just a philosophy on the subject that's been around for a while. That is, "I'm just the messenger". And as I said before, this obviously does not apply in the case of VSL or, for that matter, any company releasing professional orchestral samples, for which the production expense it quite transparent.
Also, the first company who builds my Dream Program (choir and Heavenly light) for scoring with samples will definitely see me madly throwing whatever money I can muster their way!
cheers,
J.
Just to throw in a comment...
First a disclaimer: Yes, piracy is wrong, and yes I own all my VSL. Also, in the case of VSL, the price is totally justified when you consider the enormous financial outlay that this company has made to create such a brilliant product -- from hiring musicians, editors, and programmers, right up to building their own studio!!! (Still makes my head spin...) There is no question, in this case, of an inflated price based on a sort of "secret code" philosophy.
With that out of the way, there's also much to be said for the theory behind open-source development, which strives to significantly lower development costs by "open-sourcing" large parts of the code used in the final program. This way, a great deal of the code can be written (at least in theory) at little or no expense to the company which is proposing the final software package, thus lowering costs to the end user. As an example, I've got my Linux machine running a server perfectly efficiently, and legally, at very little cost to myself (at least in software). Obviously, this is the whole idea with Linux. Mind you, it can be a real pain in the ass to get running, which is, of course, the "down side" to almost all current open-source software.
But the basic idea thrown about by the open-source community is that the philosophy of "we did it first" or "secret code" software is a large contributor to the massive expense of producing many of the commercial products we see today. They feel that piracy will be around forever, so perhaps it is time for developers to start shifting their thinking with regard to the secrecy of their ideas, and start making use of the absolutely massive "work force" available to them in the open-source community. It's not that piracy is justified, but rather that it is, at least partly, a symptom of secrecy.
Now don't burn me alive... This is neither a fact, nor my personal opinion (though I do see the sense in it). it's just a philosophy on the subject that's been around for a while. That is, "I'm just the messenger". And as I said before, this obviously does not apply in the case of VSL or, for that matter, any company releasing professional orchestral samples, for which the production expense it quite transparent.
Also, the first company who builds my Dream Program (choir and Heavenly light) for scoring with samples will definitely see me madly throwing whatever money I can muster their way!
cheers,
J.
