Just bought the unencrypted version. I am sure I will find good use for it after I try it out in some projects. Thanks for the help you give so many on the forums here, I am certainly in that boat!
Thank you for your support, Tim.
I appreciate your encouragement.
Thank you for the advice. I have changed the sale end time, it is now this Saturday, April 25. And for the time being, the regular price stays at 50% what Elastic Window used to be.
I appreciate your support. And will do my best to make sure your money is well invested.
All these reactions are heartwarming. Thank you so much. I shall try to live up to that sympathy.
[quote=181600:@Peter Job]How is this an attack on IP? You yourself had made a copy of the idea.
[/quote]
Obviously, as a developer, you completely misunderstand the notion of intellectual property. Ideas have never been copyrightable for good reason. They are just idea. Like “I would like a grid where I could enter formulas and they happen automatically” sums up the Visicalc spreadsheet from Dan Bricklin, but just as the in music, interpretations widely vary. Since the 80s, several interpretations of the spreadsheet have been created with talent, would that be Excel or Numbers.
Whenever you do the nth version of Space Invaders, you just interpret the idea. Your coding is your own creation. As we all know, there are many ways to get to the same result. That is where coding elegance and competence comes to play. That is where intellectual property reside. The same idea can start a book. But if two people were to write about it, one may be mediocre, another could be brilliant.
[quote=181600:@Peter Job]I for one am grateful that a developer is going to release something on the “donate what you feel it is worth” basis. Not all of us make a living from what we develop. I program as a hobby, and can’t afford some of the crazy prices asked for add-ons of one form or another.
That said, if your product is better than the competition, and actually works ( unlike so much RB/Xojo stuff out there ), and you support it, you will make your pennies.[/quote]
You just said it. You program as a hobby. You have a day job. I don’t. I eat and pay the rent with the software I sell. It would be preposterous to consider that more of a crime than, say, swipe the floor, sell cars, or trade stock on Wall Street.
If you attend this forum regularly, you should know I have posted innumerable snippets I share freely and try to support daily fellow Xojo programmers, professional or not. I have also posted several classes for free. That said, and while I sympathise with the limited budget for your programming hobby, it is no reason to blame the oe who tries to make a honest living out of it. I did start as a hobbyist a while ago, as many of us here BTW.
My beef with Matthew is not so much the fact that he releases a free class. It is the obvious intent to undercut and make me look bad he has manifested until he decided to make his product donationware. Sure, business is business, but there are practices more elegant than others. You may have noticed the Xojo programmers community is one where we care for each other. We share knowledge and support. I feel that commends gentle conduct. I don’t mind competition. I mind people who destroy the Xojo ecosystem with dubious and short term practices.
Good for you if you can avail yourself of free code. you may consider buying third party products.
And, please, I do not appreciate you treat me like a panhandler. That is just as bad form as looking down on hobbyists.
When you really need some features and the best possible support,
+1 : Done - got a copy - don’t need it (yet) but Michel deserves my vote.
Thank you Chris 
Exactly. You understand the point. There is no “most brutal attack on intellectual property” - no attack at all. You can stake no claim on the idea, and if someone else implements it in code, bully for him. Unless, of course, you can demonstrate that he stole your code.
[quote=181636:@Michel Bujardet]
My beef with Matthew is not so much the fact that he releases a free class. It is the obvious intent to undercut and make me look bad he has manifested until he decided to make his product donationware. [/quote]
I think that is exactly your “beef”. How/where else did he try to make you look bad? You have been pretty rude towards him.
And how did I make you look like a beggar? I suggest you release a great product, charge for it what you will, and stop bellyaching about others.
Com’on guys, let’s get back to coding!
I am not looking for pennies, and you probably know exactly why you used the expression. Why this hatred for professional developers ? After all, unless you use exclusively Linux, remember what powers your machine is the result of a commercial endeavor. Commerce is not evil. It is just an option. Shareware is not a rip off. If you want to check out my class, or even build entire programs with it, there is no time limit, no crippling. Just a single MsgBox when the program starts.
Now, indeed, you have the choice to go for donationware, open source and freeware. Choice is good.
Now, frankly, if you have a personal issue with me that necessitate constant attacks, it may not be necessary to spread it over here any longer. I welcome a healthy exchange anytime in private message. Thank you.
Where did you get that bizarre notion?
Of course not, necessarily, but it can be when developers get greedy.
I don’t know you from a bar of soap. I do have an issue with your post about IP, which is way off base, and your rudeness. And, no, dirty linen does not air in closed cupboards, but in the open.
[quote=181756:@Peter Job]Where did you get that bizarre notion?
Of course not, necessarily, but it can be when developers get greedy.
I don’t know you from a bar of soap. I do have an issue with your post about IP, which is way off base, and your rudeness. And, no, dirty linen does not air in closed cupboards, but in the open.[/quote]
Since apparently all you are looking for is a quarrel, we have nothing else to say.
Protecting intellectual property is not easy and laws vary heavily from country to country (as a side note: in Switzerland, software [or processes and alike] cannot be patented at all unless it is an integral part of a physical good which actually itself is subject to patents). One could argue whether it worth to go down the legal route, risk money and time or better invest in further development.
I feel with you Michel - but to be fair, software development is rather a side business to me (a hobby that polishes my vacation budget so to speak ;-). I pay my rent doing (mostly applied) research, advisory as well as teaching on business model innovation (among a few other areas) and hopefully I can contribute to the (original) discussion from a slightly different angle.
In history, weve seen many stories of (technological) innovation leaders that failed in the long term. Change is ubiquitous. So are copy cats. Being on the edge of technological innovation is only one piece of success. Another one is business. A new technology is only an invention. A new technology successfully sold is an innovation. Kodak was involved in the invention of the digital camera and eventually the main reason for them to file for Chapter 11! The cause is simple yet not to be sneezed at: the digital camera didnt fit their business model. They made their money with chemicals, photographic paper and photographic films. None of which was really required in the digital camera! (Well, thats only part of the story.)
Its not a perfect example for this discussion - I admit - as the copy cat factor lacks. Lets think of another one… Apple & iPhone vs. Samsung & their Android handhelds. Even though Samsung surpassed Apple in terms of sales by units, Apple remains more profitable. They can sell at higher prices while lagging in terms of pure specs (while Apple is still a hardware company with regards to turnover, I suppose this is going to change in the future - just think of the app stores etc.). How can that be? The answer is: they got a different business model and a totally different value proposition. In their case its an ecosystem, something very hard to copy. If you read through recent business model innovation research, youll find an overwhelming amount of papers on typologies of business models - software being one of the frequently referenced businesses!
That said, we all know that software business has evolved. App stores not only provide easier access to customers but also facilitate for more alternatives, resulting in fierce competition. The faster a markets pace is, the less important a first mover advantage becomes. In this regard it is really questionable if even more efforts should be put in the development of new features (of which we dont even know if customers honour them - see Normans post about Guy Kawasaki and also take a look at Eric Ries Lean Startup).
Apart from the consulting business, B2C software mostly was a licensing business. You pay a to be defined amount of dollars and get a (usually life-time) licence to use the software. Assuming feature parity (not in terms of what the app offers but rather in terms of what the customer needs!), often price is going to decide on what a customer buys (or gets free in the case of freeware). This was the dominant business model for a long time, I think.
Now, we see a bunch of different business models emerging. Lets take the ad-based app: Its free in terms of licensing fees - but you pay with your attention, your time and your money. Another one is subscription: You dont own a license, you rent an app - thus lowering entrance barriers. The initial costs for the customers are lower, however the developer will be able to establish steady revenue streams in the long run. Xojo (yearly update license and even more: Xojo Cloud) goes into a similar direction, Adobe (CC) does for sure. Those are fine and here to stay but I think they are not the most promising ones.
The more attractive ones are where you manage to get some lock-in effect (now Im coming slowly back to my initial points
). Lock-in effects can be created through various means. The most prominent one is the razor blade model. Sell the razor at a low price, earn your money with the blades. The average car manufacturer earns little if any money on car sales but on spare parts - same goes for the reseller that earn their money through maintenance services. Lets advance the Xojo Cloud example even more: The IDE is free, you only pay if you want to compile. Imagine now they allowed to compile (target web) for free as long as you subscribe to Xojo Cloud. Ouch, that could rocket and give Xojo steady revenue streams on a pretty high level (Xojo guys: although I cant protect this idea, its mine :P). Take Sams (by the way FANTASTIC - I own many of them) picture/photo apps: He might want to sell the apps at a low price but partner with photo/card printing companies to earn a commission. I am sure there are other opportunities. Or think of Rapidweaver: They could give away their app as long as users subscribed for their own hosting at lets say 5 bucks per month - how long would it take to pay off? Once a website is created, you are in need of hosting anyway and surely dont want to take it away from a working, easy-to-use solution.
Besides the razor blade model, network effects are another type of lock-in effects: The bigger the user base, the more value for each individual user. Facebook is an obvious example. The ecosystem is another business model sharing many properties of lock-in business models. In my case, I got a MBPr, an iPhone, an iPad and an Apple TV. I can run my apps and share documents across devices. I can watch my movies on all of them. I can back it up and sync across all devices thanks to iCloud. Thus, I dont dare to think of a switch! (Technically speaking, wed call this the reverse razor blade model as they still earn the biggest chunk of money on hardware, locking their customers in with their eco system where they earn a minor part of their money.) So far, Ive come across a collection of more than 50 distinct business models - each excelling in different spaces.
Getting back to my initial intention I apologise for the amount of dull bllsht I may have written it might not be worth to sue the copy cats, nor might it be advisable to strive for a first mover advantage (which wants to be maintained, after all). However, in many cases an innovative business model is the main reason for sustainable success. Building a viable business model requires some creative thinking, customer centricity (not in in terms of features but in terms of customer needs) and starting on a green field. What do customers really want to achieve (a good read on this is Clayton Christensens Job to be done*) and using what (other) means could we deliver that value?
Best,
Alex
PS: If anyone is really interested in this sort of topic I could write up more in-depth articles/posts on this. Just throw me a PM with questions and/or particular areas of interest.
*http://innovatorstoolkit.com/content/technique-1-jobs-be-done
Well then I will throw in my experiences protecting IP and software revenues, focusing on Sams’ initial question:
17 years ago I’ve developed a complete Content Management and Shopping Solution for Microsoft Windows IIS Webservers. Why Windows? Well back in those days most of my customers have had Microsoft NT4 Servers, later W2K Servers and used Microsoft driven Business Software like Lexware, KHK or others. My solution could get access to them and basically to any ODBC database through ISAPI DLLs written in VB6 and push data to the web. Products, Websites, Customers and more Information could be managed in a Windows Explorer-like UI all within the Webbrowser. So I called this product “WEXplorer” created a trademark around it and patend it in Germany at Deutsches Patentamt together with my business partner: https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/register/300713347/DE ).
As salesman he managed the sales while my focal point was developing and all the internal administrative stuff. Several bigger Marketing Companies bought licenses and my company could grew. At 2002 we were a small but effective team of 5 on payroll and 2 more as freelancers and even in the mid of dot-com crisies we have had enough. But then my partner suddenly became kinda strange. The situation escalated soon and I found out that he has stolen all the sources and let his son rebrand and sell the software by his own.
I’ve shut down my company and sued him. But the only persons making profit of this were our lawyers. After 4 years (2006) and more than 10.000 Euros sunk in this trail (not really mentioning the time and energy I’ve spend) I stopped this. In the meantime the internet developed and the first open source PHP eCommerce solutions were more and more entering the market. My software was outdated while the rebranded counter-part set the foundation of the success of his comapny which is now within a huge Incorporation group (Heidelberger) offering solutions for media and cross-media production.
Conclusion:
Even with patents on your side you cannot really protect your IP when you are a small company. It costs too much and you may lose all your energy. As Amando already said, you only “win” through quality and through love in details.
Sam you said that you’ve invested more than 18 month in your work. Thats a lot! This means In numbers: If taking 3.000 EUR per month as something you need to cover all your basic needs and to pay your taxes and bills - you have to make 54.000 Euros with this single piece of software! Without any supplemental projects or software this is really hard to accomplish.
Sigh, want the persistent edit function back! Found a couple of errors, please apologise.
Excellent point. Fact is the more offering, the more potential buyers will feel the need for that particular type of product. I believe there is a synergetic effect at play between smart phone vendors : the more you see them around, the more you feel like getting one. For some getting the iPhone is important, whereas for others the price counts first. There is even an after market of used phones. As a family or products, smart phones are competing against a new TV, a couch, new car, as the user budget is rarely unlimited.
Computer software depends on the category. End user software sold on the MAS competes between similar programs, but also between categories. A customer interested in Sam’s photo products may look at buying a game instead or some other computerized leisure. And, sorry to say, since users are highly whimsical, all that will be quickly forgotten for the next impulse.
Accounting software, for instance, is another thing : it will be purchased on the merit, in general after comparison between several titles. Users tend to keep these programs until they stop working with the system.
Third party Xojo development tools are yet another kind. Since the market is highly specialized, and that most buyers of such tools are professionals, they are probably bought usually on the merit. Does it do what I need is probably the major question of a buyer. At least, that is how I buy plugins and add ons. I suspect they are also kept for as long as they work with a particular version of Xojo and the system. I am amazed to read how so many people keep RS 2011, for instance. Well, I do have it still in my Applications folder.
I would also think that third party Xojo development tools are sold in a relational mode. First because they often get exposure through word of mouth, second because developers need a lot of support and want to make sure the publisher will be here when they need him. Moreover, precisely because programmers usually stick to what works, they want to make sure of the product durability, in particular that regular updates will insure a smooth working under all new versions of the system.
That is a very demanding agenda for a relatively small market. Incidentally, Xojo third party tools are also competing with other programming tools, way beyond Basic. For instance, MBS Chart Director is competing with Crystal report. Not on Xojo, of course. But users do use more than Xojo, and sometimes select their RAD according to requirements beyond the mere language.