Why don't programmers get royalties?

[TSwizzle]

Songwriters get royalties. Why shouldn't programmers get royalties. Programmers that design and write business logic should continue to get paid for their work. Software vendors license the application in perpetuity, making vast sums of money but the programmers gets nothing? Something not right here.

 

[steve_bank]

If you cm up e with a new algorithm you can get a patent.

Most algorithms have been in the public domain. Good coders are well paid. Don't have a number these days certainly 6 digits. As an engineer in my last full time year about 14 years ago I made around 160k.

For a PHD in computer science that is probably a starting salary today.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Songwriters get royalties. Why shouldn't programmers get royalties. Programmers that design and write business logic should continue to get paid for their work. Software vendors license the application in perpetuity, making vast sums of money but the programmers gets nothing? Something not right here.

It's a different payment model, that's all.

Songwriters (and authors in general) generally get paid per copy. As it's their actions that make up the majority of the product this is a very sensible model. However, it tends to not be nearly as useful for products where there are many other factors involved. Royalties when my total installed userbase has never exceeded about 100? I'm being paid for what I do, not for how many people are using it.