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Re:On paying for software by matheusmoreira on Sunday June 10, 2018 @10:57AM (#17278386)
Products are scarce. Data isn't.

What if everyone had a Star Trek replicator? Would they still pay for products according to their value? That's what a computer acts like.

Re:On paying for software by rootlocus on Sunday June 10, 2018 @11:35AM (#17278581)
You would probably pay for: the replicator, the recipe,the ingredients and the energy used by the replicator. However, Star Trek has a different economy from ours.
Re:On paying for software by mathgeek on Sunday June 10, 2018 @11:52AM (#17278661)
Star Trek has no economy except for its fictional one. Their economy of fabricators is itself a fabrication. At best, it represents an ideal.
Re:On paying for software by rootlocus on Sunday June 10, 2018 @12:02PM (#17278711)
Which is why the original argument is pointless.
Re:On paying for software by TimJYoung on Sunday June 10, 2018 @11:07AM (#17278427)
Yes, and software products are the sum total of all of the effort put into developing, advertising, maintaining, and supporting them. The fact that they are distributed as data is an inconsequential fact that obscures what they actually represent, and that is very much a human achievement no different from painting a picture or building a couch. There are tooling costs and all sorts of ongoing fixed costs, just like any other business.

As for Star Trek: when that day comes, we'll deal with it then.