|
As the guy who runs Cydia, your analysis of the money involved (or really, money not involved ;P) is spot on, but can be made even stronger: it isn't as if these things distributed by Cydia are things Apple would distribute in the first place, so even if that "lost" revenue were a meaningful amount, Apple has no mechanism to get it anyway. (Honestly, if you could distribute something in the App Store, and are coming to Cydia instead, you are going to get some funny looks on my end. Cydia is not about accepting the App Store's rejects, nor is it about competing with the App Store. It is a way to distribute things fundamentally unlike the things in the App Store: extensions, not apps.) Frankly, every time anyone--the EFF included--makes the argument that this somehow comes down to sales numbers and revenue competition, it just undermines the cause. :( That really sucks, as I think this is a serious issue and there really are good arguments to be made, but instead everyone just latches on to this simple-but-wrong direct revenue idea. (For those who then ask "ok, what are some of those arguments?", I will direct you to the comments I sent to the copyright office for this year's round of exemption requests. I focus on things like cross-market control and the stifling of non-app innovation. You can also, however, make arguments about consumer control, purchase longevity, and security.) http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/comments/Jay_Freeman.pdf |