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Comment by mryan | Hacker News Reader

What is your goal with this comment? I'm genuinely curious - so many ShowHNs result in a vapid comment such as this, and I always wonder what the person was hoping to achieve.

vasylslobodian - congrats on shipping, good luck with it!

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What I mean is that the value or whatever of what vasylslobodian is selling is completely nullified as soon as someone uploads a copy to the internet, for free. Maybe I don't understand the business model, but to me it's the same as selling music, you might as well give it away for free and offer custom services around it.

The same can be said of any downloadable thing - music, templates, ebooks, wordpress plugins etc. And yet, there are many businesses thriving selling these.

Not everyone is a pirate on the internet

With Chinas manufacturing surplus and cheaper and cheaper ways of manufacturing in mind, the same thing can essentially be said for everything that does not consist of 500lbs of steel or a custom service. Hence intellectual property laws exist.

There are ways to express your uncertainty about a business model without appearing to denigrate the effort the creator has put in to it. You could have asked the OP if he is concerned about people sharing his content after they have purchased it, and asking what steps he is taking to prevent that. If it's an area you are familiar with, you might even offer tips on how to, for example, include identifying watermarks to help identify the source of any leaks.

thanks a lot, mryan!

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