Reality of Customer Copyright

• You [Vendor] own means

  • Vendor can move product forward, amortise development costs across its customers
  • Vendor can make strategic decisions about and control product’s direction
  • Benefit from involvement of broader user base
  • Vendor lock in - high switching costs in the event of unresponsive vendor
  • Customer funds vendor’s R&D from which Vendor subsequently profits
  • What if Customer’s vision is different from Vendor’s vision?
  • Lack of competition for ancillary services (maintenance, training etc) so ability to extract monopoly rents. “Lock in” data formats may provide additional anti-competitive effects/lock in.
  • Vendor insolvency/restructuring can mean end of product support
  • Often leads to serial obsolescence with one solution completely replacing another.