yeah, but has anyone ever indignantly stated they'd no longer crack or pirate your products?  if that were the case, it would be your money you were no longer being denied, thus providing you a clear rationale to keep on keepin on, no?

People will always find the dumbest reasons to or not to buy a product.

Think of all the people out there who also reply "Damn, that guy's got balls!  More CEOs should be like that."

Some moron that refuses to purchase a product because he/she doesn't like the political views of the company CEO would, in all probability, be such a pain in the ass customer that you're probably better off without them. Such people can cost a company far more in lost hours dealing with their inane complaints than they could ever hope to make from their purchase.

Sometimes a lost sale can actually be a gain in the long run.

Kingbee has a point, you probably lose more money to piracy then from crackpots who don't like your views.  Its kind of dumb really, its like me calling up to cancel my HBO subscription because I don't like Bill Maher's views.

Nothing moronic about it, it's the consumer exercising their capitalist democratic right, something that makes capitalism in many ways a more effective democracy than the actual democratic system. Some people may decide to use their money to protest against a particular issue and not buy their goods from a particular place as a result (and hence try and get the thing they're protesting about changed), others may work in reverse and choose to buy their goods from somewhere because of some factor other than the actual quality of the product e.g. while you have posts saying people won't buy from stardock because of Draginol's views, you also have lots of people saying they will buy because of his stance on DRM). The company/person in question can then try and evaluate whether to continue with what they're doing that's causing this or not.

Oh I support the concept of someone not purchasing something in order to express a political belief.  The problem, however, is whether anyone knows why they aren't purchasing something.

The main problem I've always seen online with those kinds of customers is the belief that the customer is somehow doing the company a favor by purchasing a product.

I've never seen it that way. I look at it as a trade - money for a good or service.  Hence, historically we've exiled people and kept them from purchasing new products from us (at least knowingly) for any number of reasons.  Hence, turn about on us is fair play in my opinion.

I agree in one sense. If a company has a policy or acts in such a way that a person strongly disagrees I can see refusing to purchase from them. But here we're talking about an individual within a company, not the company itself. If a person refuses to do business with any company that has an employee with which they disagree, they'll be doing business with nobody at all.

Of course a person is well within their rights to act in such a way, but then a company employee or CEO is also within their rights to express their political views. While I can agree with boycotting a company because of it's actions or policies, I still think that doing so because of the personal views of an employee, even a CEO, is moronic.

Brad, if Stardock were getting favorable contracts, you were appointed to some post by the president, and Stardocks "media" wing posted only favorable stories about the administration, Then I would have a problem (IE, The GE, Jeffrey Immelt, NBC Obama love-fest).

As long as your views are your views alone, you're not pushing it down anyones throat and you continue to allow others to disagree if they choose, I believe you have nothing to worry about. People that won't buy just because they disagree with your personal viewpoint would probably lead a lonely life if they based all their purchases and relationships that way. As a conservative I still have many liberal friends that I have a great time with, nobody is asking me to convert.

Besides, after years of seeing your opinions, I would probably be within my rights to say those that disagree with you are more likely to lean left. Like it or not you are teaching them a lesson in capitalism. In a capitalist society they are free to make or not make a purchasing decision based on their personal feelings, where under a strict socialist system (such as communism) they might have no choice whatsoever, if they can buy at all. So in a nut shell, thanks for keeping all those leftist, socialist sympathizers - proud capitalists!