Re: [Audacity-devel] Here's another audacity seller :)

[Dave F. <dav...@co...>]

On Sunday 21 December 2003 01:40 pm, Brook Humphrey wrote:
> look at this point I dont do this and only use ebay ocasionaly to buy and
> sell but I have good feedback and am fair with my customers. I have been
> using ebay for a number of years now. I f I was to start doing this what
> would everybody here consider to be a fair price and further more how much
> would you guys like donated per sale.

A fair price in a capitalist society is defined as "As much as the market will 
bear."  :)  That, of course, is what makes monopolies dangerous...

> I was thinking a percentage after costs. The next thing is who do you want
> to collect the profits from these sales.

I suggest that there are other examples to take from that are quite 
reasonable.  For example, I've been looking at putting together a 
distribution of Project Gutenberg texts formatted for Palm computers to read.  
PG stores in plaintext, so my first value-add feature is formatting them for 
Palms.  I would like to be able to use their trademark in marketing, and I'd 
like to give something back to the project.  Their license allows me to use 
the trademark as long as I give 20% of my *profits* to the project, and that 
I calculate profits for this purpose the same way I calculate them for my 
taxes.  (There's still more, like differentiating my own distribution from 
the project and stuff to deal with legal liability and so forth, and not to 
mention that I had intended to give them some money anyway, this just gives 
me a convenient guideline to follow that they find acceptable)  I think 
that's perfectly reasonable and have decided to proceed under that license.   
(And have been meaning to call this to Dominic's attention for when the 
Audacity trademark comes through, in case he didn't already know about it)  I 
would suggest that a similar deal is probably reasonable here and other 
places.  However, in the past when this has come up, I've noticed that 
Audacity people don't want to "make an offer", they want you (me) to decide 
what is fair and "do the right thing", in general.  Maybe I read it wrong, 
but that's what I've pulled from previous discussion.  The general consensus 
(including my own bias, I should add) seems to indicate that participation in 
the project is what is wanted, even if that participation doesn't materialize 
monetarily, but commercial enterprises are generally expected throughout the 
free software community to participate with money first, code second, beer 
third.  ;)  (although that last point is negotiable)

For me, for giving up profits to Audacity (on my so-far vaporware 
distribution) I decided that using their existing donation collection system 
was perfectly acceptable, the only catch is that I don't want it to be 
anonymous.  I *want* an audit trail to show what I've given to the project.  
Not only does it show that you have given up some portion of your own profit 
for the project, but it also gives you something you can point at for your 
own customers to prove that you really are a "community distributor" and 
involved in the community, and of all the value-add features you can have, 
that is probably the most valuable and the easiest way to differentiate 
yourself from those evil guys.  :)

That's my two cents, so take it for what it's worth.  :)

Dave

> Anyway if there is anybody interested let me know but I wont go out and
> just do this like the others have. I consider this sleazy and well just
> evil. A laborer is worthy of his hire. Thanks.
>
> - --
> 
> -~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~-~`'~
>- Brook Humphrey
>         Mobile PC Medic, 420 1st, Cheney, WA 99004, 509-235-9107
> http://www.webmedic.net, ba...@we..., ba...@li...
>                                  Holiness unto the Lord
> 
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