eCommerce

Every other day you see a story from some legacy industry about how the modern world is decimating their cushy income model, about how they've failed to react and adapt to what their customers have been demanding, and how the government should step in with some laws in some area to protect their income stream. Why adapt when you can lobby government so you don't have to?

There's a persistent myth that Linux users won't pay for software, where Windows and OSX users will. It's used as part of the salvo of excuses or reasons why developers don't bother making Linux versions of their software. It's not as cut and dried as either camp make out.

Plenty of the legacy industries think it's perfectly normal that consumers have to pay them over and over and over again for the same product, if it changes hands or for a new format version. They think that it's nothing short of money laundering if those products change hands and don't pay them another fee. Let's change the context to see how ridiculous that assertion is.

The key balancing factor in a Capitalist system is consumer choice. Companies can do whatever they want, behave however badly they want, price their goods however uncompetitive they want. If enough consumers choose not to use them, they go out of business. Amazon need to assist their customers, not hinder them.

I've been giving some thoughts about the idea of a Digital Sale Of Goods act which is currently being discussed at the EU level. I've not looked at the details of what they have planned, it's more exploring the idea and it's implications. I do note the BSA are bleating about it and urging their employees to vote against it, so it may be more balanced than we could have hoped for.