8-Bit Software Online Conversion

CHARGING Charging is not necessary to 8-bit Software as the costs I bear amount to less than #8 per month. If I was to "Break Even" then I would have to charge members 9p per disc per month provided members sent their own disc and return P+P. As I work full time and I am on an income, this amount per month is too small a cost to bother recouping. However I DO respect the fact that some P.D. organisers not on an income (ie. at school/college) need to recoup their costs and charging each person (no more than #0.55 for a single disc) who requests software is the only way to do this. I would like to make it clear that the following article does not refer to these persons, and is in no way intended to misrepresent the hard work they put into running their libraries. As for the rest ... God help them ..... PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE itself is, and should always be FREE - make no bones about it there should be no charges for the software itself, nothing at all, NONE. Sadly however, the "copying charge" loophole has been exploited by many PD library organisers and profits are made at the expense of other programmers time and outstanding hard work. There is no excuse for it - anyone who claims that he/she is "just covering costs" and is charging more than 55p copying charge per disc are deliberatly misleading their customers and deserve have the tax man knocking at the door. If you are not prepared to put a little time and effort into running a PD library at your own expense then you should NOT be running a library at all. So what is a properly run "PUBLIC DOMAIN ORGANISATION"? The best example to use here is to take one of the many bulletin boards that operate around the UK. A Bulletin board operates rather like 8-bit Software does, except rather then use the post to exchange software and correspondence, a member uses his/her computer and a "modem" to connect up LIVE to a bulletin board. For example I would dial the phone No. of the bulletin board I wish to use, wait until the "host" computer answered the phone, and then I would connect my modem and thus establish a phone link between my computer and that of the BB. After entering my name and password I would have access to numerous "special interest groups", message bases, magazines and P.D. software - all for the price of a phone call. Unlike many P.D. libraries, the bulletin board operators (called SySops) run their services at considerable expense to themselves, yet in 90% of cases no charge is passed on to the users. Contrary to what you might be thinking, a bulletin board is run by an ordinary person in his/her spare time, using standard computer equipment usually located in the bedroom. All you need to run a BB is a Computer (ie. Model B), a modem, a disc drive (preferably ADFS), a phone line and some "host" software. Some operators charge a VOLOUNTARY registration fee (usually about #5 or #10 per year) in exchange for greater privalages when using the board. This is a sensible and fair way of charging as the user can SEE what the service is like BEFORE sending any money. A few postal P.D. libraries do a demo disc, but (yes, you've guessed) for a charge. I wonder how much custom they'd get if they offered the first single order disc free so customers could SEE the quality of service before paying for it? Due to the limitations of corresponding by post, the bulletin board organisations are able to run a better, "on-line" service than I will ever hope to run at 8-bit Software, but apart from this there is little difference between the two of us. Both 8-bit Software and bulletin boards offer FREE P.D. software and FREE magazine, message and editing facilities - so why do these other P.D. libraries less than 1 year old HAVE to make a profit? P.D. software for the 8-bit BBC Micro has been around on these Bulletin Boards for a lot longer than 8-bit Software and all the other new libraries that sprouted last year so P.D. for the BBC Model B is nothing new. So let is all bear in mind that we're not setting the charging standards for the distribution of P.D. software - we're violating them. It would be a crying shame to discourage all the talented computer owners not fortunate enough to have access to communications hardware their right to this source of P.D. software by charging them into oblivion. This is especially true of the younger generation who have to use their pocket money to "buy" this P.D. software. These young people are tomorrows (if not todays) programmers and it would be nice to encourage them to create more of the high quality software we have already seen so the non-programming population of computer owners can benefit, both young and old, programmer and non-programmer alike. ______________________________________________________________________ Well there you have it - my personal opinion of PD charging. I would be very interested to hear what views and/or experiences you have as individuals, particulary if you AGREE with the notorious copying charge as I would like to have both sides of this discussion put forward. If you run a PD library which charges then I would also like to publish your views (without editing them first I promise). I await your responses with eager anticipation ...