Quote -

Quote - It's the creeping introduction of charges that should be of concern.

I don't quite get that... Renderosity pays their staff, they pay for servers, they pay for bandwidth, they have a lot of costs and overhead. Why shouldn't they charge for some or all of their services?

Sorry, but I can't resist:

Let me first say that Renderosity has every right to charge for whatever services they like. If they want to charge $24.95 as a "deterrant", that's completely up to them.

But, make no mistake: we shouldn't think these extra services are a way for them to pay the bills.

First, I doubt enough people will use this service to give the site a steady stream of income.

Second, the site keeps 50% of the product sales sold in the marketplace. I've seen people post estimates that the site takes in anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 a month. (I don't remember the exact message thread, but see various postings in the "Community Forums".)
There are also allegations that Renderosity is staffed by volunteers so Bondware doesn't have to pay employees. I think this is an unproven allegation, but it would be an interesting fact since it would significantly reduce their cost.

On the other hand, these calculations and allegations are usually made by people who have become upset that their account was banned or removed. So take their postings with a grain of salt. ;)

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