Would it be possible to put the manuals in PDF files, but limit access
to them via a login and password to those who have bought the manuals,
or who have paid a subscription fee to access them?
On Sun, 2002-12-22 at 13:35, David Epstein wrote:
> Right. Not to belabor the point, but Stata is probably correct to assume
> that massive redistribution of PDF files would take place. Also, the manuals
> are of such high quality, and contain so much instruction of how to use the
> statistical tools, that to me they're more like a series of statistics
> texts. And no one would suggest that a textbook writer also distribute the
> book in PDF form. So I think we'll have to live with the paper manuals for
> the time being.
>
> David Epstein
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Richard
> Sperling
> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 12:16 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: st: PDF Stata 8 manuals
>
>
>
> On Sun, 22 Dec 2002, Marcello Pagano wrote:
>
> > I too would love to see the manuals in PDF form, since I also often
> > use my laptop. I suspect that the reason for the unavailability of
> > the manuals in this form is that it would cut significantly into the
> > sales of the (paper) manuals? Thus, even though we are probably back
> > to talking about pricing (!) I would like to hear from Stata Corp on
> > this.
> >
> > m.p.
> >
>
> Right. Charging separately for the manuals allows Stata to price
> discriminate. Those users who really must have all of the manuals will pay
> the full price, and those of us who feel we can get by without purchasing
> the full set of manuals pay a lower amount. But it seems to me that the
> marginal cost of producing the pdf manuals should be small. So why not
> simply produce them and distribute them along with the paper manuals? One
> possible answer is that, as Marcello suggests, Stata Corp. loses revenue.
> Consider an unethical user who purchases Stata with the minimal set of
> manuals and then begs, borrows, or steals the other pdf manauls later.
> It's easy to copy pdf files; it's expensive in terms of time and money to
> copy a stack of paper manuals.
>
> Richard
>
>
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Gene A. Fisher
Department of Sociology
University of Massachusetts
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