You Should Make Spybot 2 Commercial

[dj.turkmaster]

I have read the announcement on the main page. For over 6 years I have been using Spybot. When I first installed it I was using Windows ME. Now windows vista... Years have passed but Spybot is still my main anti-spyware application, running with Antivir and PcTools firewall. Spyware Terminator is my backup security app. It is not actively running on the backround. Whereas Teatimer is always on :)
I am a computer science student in university in Turkey. And I know how things work in software development, and security softwares. Excepectations are always high, but the willingness to pay for it is not that high. People use cracked versions, but they still complain about their software, and make demands from the software company, whereas they dont even pay for it.
It is the same for Spybot with a small difference that they dont need to crack it. People still don't pay for it but they keep on making demands, continuously asking when version 2 will be announced. They don't even think what is the cost of this to you. They dont pay for it, they wait you bear all the expenses and provide this software for free.
This is something nearly impossible. Spybot is maybe the biggest project, provided for free. But it seems it is getting more difficult for you guys to keep up this project. So I think it is time for you to think of selling Spybot, instead of giving it away for free.

Spybot is the oldest and one of the best known antispyware application. It is succesffull, it has a very good reputation and almost every computer user know Spybot. So it won't be hard for you to earn money from this project. If Ad-Aware can sell their software, spybot can sell even more.

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

Thank you for your nice words, that is always nice to hear. :)
But we believe that privacy is a personal right, not a consumer good that needs to be bought. We want to base our decisions on matters of privacy and security only, not commercial gain. We also believe in free choice.
Therefore we do not want to make the private edition of Spybot - Search & Destroy commercial.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[dj.turkmaster]

Hello Sandra,

I have already read the license, and I am aware of your thought, that you say security and privacy must not be something to pay for but it should be a personal right.

In my opinion if someone wants to be secure they should use linux, then they wont even have to pay for the operating system:) But windows is an insecure OS, and people who care about their privacy and security should pay for it.

What you believe is really nice. And it is nice to see there are still people like you in the computer security area.

But I think you should define your aim in 2 steps.

Provide security to users.
Provide it for free.

But if you come to the point that you cant provide security for free. Then at least continue providing security, but earn some money.

Maybe 10 years ago, your belief in free security was not something hard to accomplish with at most 10 malware appearing in a day. But now everyday thousand of new malware appear and your job has become much harder.

Free spybot is the best. Paid spybot is good. But a dead spybot wont be good. I'd rather the paid spybot instead of a dead spybot.

After all, it is your beliefs and your program :) I am merely just a user. I like using Spybot and I like using it for free. But I will like using spybot even if it is not free :)

Best regards,

Alptugay