Quote:
Originally posted by napho
Scyth always reiterates that he uses the versions with advertising because otherwise they'll go broke. Spoken like a guy who puts in alot of work developing things. But isn't that how the movie studios feel when they spend $100 mil on a movie and it's being "shared" before it even opens?
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I'm sure the movie studios feel somewhat like LimeWire does. I want new versions of LimeWire to be released . Therefore, I'll use the ad-enabled version fo LimeWire so that LimeWire LLC doesn't go broke. Similarly, I want new movies to be released. Therefore, I'll continue to go to theaters and rent/buy DVDs so that the movie studios don't go broke.
However, unlike the movie studios, LimeWire LLC has chosen to make their product free, in both senses of the word. They do this because they believe that it is possible to make a profit from a free product. The movie studios however place tight restrictions on their products, make every attempt to portray pirates as scum, and lobby Congress to have the public's right even further restricted. Given that I pirate the occasional movie (though I'm sure that this does not affect my spending on movies), I consider this to be an attack against me. For this reason, I tend to be much quicker to leap to the defense of LimeWire LLC than to the defense of the movie studios, even though I see the parallels between their positions.
I also think there's far more to lose in the case of LimeWire. Unlike the movie studios, LimeWire LLC is at risk of shut down. Also, unlike the movie studios, LimeWire LLC has an easy way to stop the abuse of their product, closing the source. There is much more danger of losing open-source p2p clients than there is of losing movies.
BTW, I think I've only made that statement that I "always reiterate" twice here and twice on ZP.