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Discussion : Piracy passions
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2004-07-27 09:11:56 - SA
One of the biggest problems I have with the price of legal software is how the same product can have a variety of prices depending on what the company thinks they can get for it. For example, how much did M$ offer Windows and the Office suite to certain european countries last year when they said they were moving to Linux? How come Office can be purchased for a fifth as much by students than the retail price? Why is it that the multi-processor server versions of M$ OS's thousands of dollars more than the single processor version, for EXACTLY THE SAME CODE??!
What these 'piracy studies' fail to take into account is who has the pirated software, and why? You will find that most of the time it is people who feel that they need the software (such as M$ office, for file compatibility with their friends and work) but simply can't afford it. If it was reasonably priced, they would probably buy it. But $1000 for office is rediculous, and its simply not worth it for Mr Joe Average. So he gets a copy from a friend or off the internet. His friend gets a copy off him to use in his small business. And so on.
These copies are NOT coming out of company revenue, because most of these people simply wouldn't BUY it if a legitimate version was their only option.
I am all for people and businesses being adequately remunerated for their effort, skills, creativity and work. But neither M$ nor record companies are in any danger of being too broke to eat any time soon, but some of the people with pirated software, music and videos may well be.
Just because you can print an EULA doesn't make you judge, jury and executioner, it doesn't make you the government, and it doesn't make you RIGHT. M$, get a clue - you do NOT have the right to own media formats or to tell me what I can and can't do with media content, nor can you tell me what I can and can't do with my software. Ditto media companies.
Once again, remember to grab your salt at the door when reading so-called 'statistics' published about anything, especially piracy. They may be paying an outside consultancy to collect their numbers, but they can make them say whatever they want. Having a first-hand insight into the way even scientific data is collected, represented and published there is nearly always an agenda and a misrepresentation of the figures, and I won't believe any numbers unless I can see the study and data collection methods in its entirity. Anyone can bandy about percentages - what takes intelligence, knowledge and courage is to analyse everything behind the figures, which most certainly hasn't been done here.
SA
2004-07-27 08:31:36 - dom
The main reason I see for pirated software is when it comes from other countries all the distributors do is convert the price of the product from american dollars to whatever country they sell it to.
The problem with this is that the people in these countries don't have the cash to buy this junk. They would rather put it to more important things like eating.
More people in a given country would buy this software if it was sold in line with the price of other products.
Look at the majority % of piracy and the countries and compare their dollar to americas dollar. I bet its linear.
The lower their dollar is the higher the ammount of piracy in that country is.
2004-07-27 07:56:09 -
I agree, If games and software in general were cheaper I would be more inclined to purchase them, I mean Microsoft make us pay for the "privlage" of using the software, now I understand that they need to make money and I even admit I can get software cheaper than most due to my position as a reseller, However I dont see the point of paying 400$ for Office. For now I will keep my windows machine for my gaming needs and All my other stuff is Linux. Which makes the point that they want to combat linux, how in the hell can they combat it when you look at the cost difference.
2004-07-27 06:30:31 -
I agree - if games were the same price as music CDs, then I can garauntee you I'd have a lot more legit game boxes on my shelf than ones with the title scrawled on with texta.
I can't afford $90 AUD plus for a single game. That's shit. I would, however, gladly hand over $30 for a game, because then I could play online, and get a glowing feeling of helping the developers out.
Windows costs a few hundred bucks. That is a total rip off, when Microsoft earns billions already. They charge through the arse for software, because they are greedy shits.
Make your software cheaper, and I'll pay for it.
2004-07-27 05:49:30 - Juman
I wonder why? Maybe because software manufactures charge so bloody much.
Put games at $20AUD and office packages at $50AUD, and maybe people would buy them. Right now it is cheaper to download, plus pirate games don't have as many annoying copy protections that force you to keep the CD in the drive. Not to mention bloody annoying activations every time you reinstall. Forget the morals of it, because no one cares about that anymore. Piracy is more convenient and cheaper.
In other words stop the annoying copy protections and lower the prices or stop complaining. I feel like more of a criminal when I purchase software because I can't use it how I want to.
2004-07-27 05:46:51 - juman
I wonder why? Maybe because software manufactures charge so bloody much.
Put games at $20AUD and office packages at $50AUD, and maybe people would buy them. Right now it is cheaper to download, plus pirate games don't have as many annoying copy protections that force you to keep the CD in the drive. Not to mention bloody annoying activations every time you reinstall. Forget the morals of it, because now one cares about that anymore. Piracy is more convenient and cheaper.
In other words stop the annoying copy protections and lower the prices or stop complaining. I feel like more of a criminal when I purchase software because I can't use it how I want to.
Total 6 comments
