this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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Camera owner asks Canon, skies: Why is it $5/month for webcam software? (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Alphane_Moon to c/hardware
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[–] Donnywholovedbowling 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Copying my comment from another thread on the topic

Probably because the software team is under a different cost center than the hardware/camera team, and they weren't generating revenue. So the idiot assholes at the top of the SW side said "we can monetize our webcam software" and a bunch of people agreed so they could look relevant and keep their jobs. Capitalism!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This could be shortened to “Because it costs money to develop the software”

[–] Donnywholovedbowling 2 points 2 weeks ago

But that's not the point. Of course it costs money, but they're not content providing it for free. A lot of hardware companies provide additional apps and functionality for free to enhance the hardware and make it better, but Canon chose to monetize it