Sometime between 1989 and 1993 the peculiar delusion arose among wareZ traders that the value in a piece of software was neither reflected in its retail price (something in which I think most of us would agree) nor in its utility (where our philosophies diverge) but in how soon it made its way to your hard drive. Back when InterNet access was rare, expensive and just generally non-ubiquitous compared to now I can see why that might have been, but in retrospect it seems irrevocably odd.