Peeve Farm

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Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
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     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

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Thursday, August 29, 2002

19:35 - The Price of Honesty

(top)

When I picked up my copy of Jaguar on Tuesday at ComputerWare in Sunnyvale, my brain bubbled up from under a hazy blanket of 36 hours of non-sleep to remind me that Apple had announced a "Family Pricing" thing, where you could get a single copy of the OS which was licensed for up to five computers within a household, for $200. Since we have four machines in our house, I figured, hey-- since a single copy is $129, that's a pretty sweet deal-- $70 for peace of mind. Because otherwise, I'd almost certainly have only bought the one copy, or at most two, and installed it on multiple machines (because there's never been any Windows-esque protection in the Mac OS against that). It's one of those "I don't like doing it, but it's mostly out-of-sight/out-of-mind and seems to be condoned by the company anyway" sorts of things. After all, it's not like I'm pirating the OS outright, is it? They can't honestly expect someone to pay full price for four or five different boxed copies just to install on four or five different machines all under the same roof?

As quoted by Think Secret:

Explaining the recently-announced 5-unit family pack for Jaguar, Bereskin said that it was intended for households who "wanted to find a more affordable solution for staying legal." While the Mac OS X licensing agreement only allows installation on a single system, there is no Windows XP-style activation: "We've never put copy-protection techniques into our software."

This is an admirable attitude, I think. Rather than trying to enforce above-the-board software use through onerous and invasive anti-piracy schemes, they've chosen to give people the option to pay incrementally more for peace of mind. They've found by now that enough people who do multiple installs from a single boxed copy realize that it's not right and wish there was a better and feasible other option; and they've given them that option in the form of an officially sanctioned multi-unit package right at a pricing sweet-spot. If you're already paying $129 and you have the slightest bit of guilt about installing it on multiple machines, the $200 family pack is a bargain even if it were just for two licenses. And you get five.

He did say, however, that businesses cannot buy a family pack, and that there has been little interest shown below 10-unit licenses.

In other words, if you're a business, you can't just cleverly cut your OS upgrade outlay by 80% through this method. Way to see that loophole coming, guys.

I like it. And so did the guy at ComputerWare who pulled the family-pack box out from under the desk, noting under his breath the Windows XP Activation stuff and the $300 pricing. Yeah, I'm glad I'm not having to weigh that decision.