software and market inefficiency

Gregory Hather (student@calpoly.edu)
Sat, 25 Sep 1999 21:00:12 -0700

The current method of selling software is ineficient. Since producing an aditional copy of software costs nothing, the best distribution method is to let eveyone be able to use it. The current system prevents this by charging people based on whether they buy it or not. Here is a way that might solve the problem.

Some organization provides a service to all its members. The members have acsess to a software library and are charged a fixed rate per month. Thus, people would enjoy the benifits of the software that they were too cheap to actualy buy. If they quit the group, all of the software they downloaded stops working. The organization gets permision from the software producers by paying an amount proportional to the number of members in the group.

If someone were to create the first software library with this new means of information comerce, they just might get rich.