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MacHeist "Week of Mac Developer" Causes Schism
ernesto99 writes "MacHeist began selling a software bundle of ten highly sought-after OS X applications last week with the stated goal of raising the profile of Mac shareware developers. 25% of the money brought in goes to charity. The bundle sale will go down as possibly the biggest success in Mac shareware history, as total revenues are approaching $650,000 after only six days. But some observers, including Daring Fireball's John Gruber, have called into question the ethics of MacHeist. MacHeist advertises itself as 'The Week of the Independent Mac Developer,' yet the MacHeist organizers stand to make vastly outsized gains relative to the very developers they have championed. Gruber calculates that MacHeist will record double, if not triple, the profits of all ten participating developers combined. (In fact the promotion has done so well that the promoter-to-developers profit ratio now stands at about four to one.) In an interview, Delicious Library developer Wil Shipley defends his involvement in MacHeist, saying that the publicity and reach of MacHeist has already paid him dividends. The whole affair has created a heated dialogue, resulting in a direct clash among some of the biggest names in the Mac community."
resulting in a direct clash among some of the biggest names in the Mac community.
Yeah all 3 of them.
> I also fail to see controversy. Does anyone actually PAY for software anymore?
> I dont know about you, but I steal EVERYTHING. If its not physical, then there is no crime.
You must be a linux user.
Bill Gates said it best we he claimed that the GPL is a cancer. To be broader though, open source is the cancer. Downloading something is either open source, or becomes open source automatically. The two major principles of open source, which are being free to acquire and being free to redistribute, are always met with p2p software.
Let us recall how OpenServer was open-sourced by IBM. It all started when SCO and IBM got together to make a UNIX OS for the Itanium CPU. IBM got the idea that they might as well go with Linux since they wouldn't have to pay for anything. Just cash in on the support fees which coincidently happen to be very high for Linux. Now, Linux was quite behind the times at the technical level. So IBM moved large swaths of advanced source from OpenServer to Linux. Linus moved the source from bitkeeper to subversion to hide the tracks.
We'll see how things go in court. In the meantime, I recommend SCOX. It's a BUY.
Linux violates 235 Microsoft patents.
Mac Heist is the RIAA of Mac Software. They market small developers' work and earn them new sales. Developers are happy to sign away rights to sales they would never have seen otherwise, and the organizers make a lot of money from it. Actually, the cut they take is far larger than any other promoter, including the often vilified record companies.
As with musicians, small developers have little capacity to reach broad markets and sell their work. Without an RIAA, they'd be asking for change - like shareware. Not many can live off their work without promotion. Sign them up in a stacked contract, give them money they wouldn't otherwise get, and then market the hell out of it. Throw in "charity."
Keep at least two Mac Heist articles on the front page of Digg at all times for weeks. Make lots of money without creating anything. The RIAA, but with a fatter profit margin.
Phill Ryu is "known for his ability to con Mac users out of anything," as he describes himself on his website. His "My Dream App" similarly gamed Digg into being his free publicity machine. Where are the Mike Caddicks for Phill Ryu? Certainly he's interested in limelight and attention. Why hasn't he been vilified by the police of spam on Digg? He's running a high profit operation on the backs of small developers. The outrage! Capitalism! Oh, wait, nobody cares about spam on Digg, because 80% of Digg is spam.
No, apparently charges of spam and "gaming Digg" only apply when an author, who makes absolutely no money from his work, submits his articles to Digg and other people enjoy them. If there is anything that might challenge the audience, or distract them from what they've been told by CNET, they it must be attacked with a fury.
Maybe if I start taking advantage of small developers and spin out unoriginal, content-free marketing, all the spam and gaming charges will go away.
Digg Fraud Campaigns
a small shop that sells their ware for $25 a pop is missing out on $1,250,000 if only 50,000 people get a copy of Widget 3.0 via bittorrent, and that's more than enough lost revenue to go out of business. Now, I know, you're going to say "They still have the software to sell! They lose nothing!" But if even HALF those people were going to buy it, but decided not to because, meh, it's already here... That's $625,000 that they DO lose.
Think about it this way instead. 50,000 people could get Widget 3 for free at no cost and no harm to anyone. Instead, because of ridiculous laws, they are forced to purchase it at $25 a pop. That's $1.25 million that's going into the pocket of someone who's not providing any useful service. That money is, in essence, stolen. And it's far more reasonable to call this theft, once my money is taken, I don't have it anymore.
If the small retailers want to stay in business, they need to provide a service people need. Forcing us to use them by law is just extortion.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!