Software Piracy

Original post:Software Piracyby at Blogdigger Media search for softwares torrent

Original post:Software Piracyby at Blogdigger Media search for movies torrent

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Finally a topic that I could contribute my own point of view! You went through many good points on your video, cost issues and whatnot, and even stated that nothing can justify illegal means of obtaining a piece of software; which is also true.

However the main problem I still think is the cost issue. Many commercial programs that are commonly used (Photoshop for example) are very expensive and thus excludes a wide range of customers from purchasing it, this way “promoting” piracy. Piracy can never be fully stopped, but for partial solution businesses should provide alternative methods of payment for the more expensive programs ($200+).

Few alternatives that instantly come into mind are monthly payments until the full software cost has been met and the fee could be selected with the most suitable option for the particular customers wallet or perhaps the software market should adopt micro-payments that are used in games. Micro-payments would allow the customer to pay for those features he/she would use and “update” new features as the need arises.

Anyways, just my 2 cents.

On a relatively similar subject, you have to understand that in some countries, they have /not/ taken action to outline what is and what isn’t piracy.

Theoretically, in the UK until recently, you could be thrown in jail or pay a large fine for copying music onto your iPod.

And relating to another article you posted, if we weren’t gouged for prices, as someone so beautifully put, a lot of pirates would buy the damn thing. I’m lucky, though; McAfee fooled itself into giving me the US price instead of the UK price, so effectively, I got it half price.

Another example: A game over here costs £34.99 used. That’s $70 (give or take a dollar or two). And you get it for $40 new?! Yes, I used to be a pirate. I wasn’t proud of it, and as soon as I got a decent price (ie buying from the US), I got it legally.

I think one of the primary reasons piracy is rampant, especially here in the UK, is as already mentioned, the price of software and media. Actually, the following only applies to the UK, a place where we can expect to regularly pay anywhere between two to four times as much for software, music and films than people in the US.

At University I studied design, and everyone used pirated software. In fact I only bought one application, and that was due to the fact it was practically impossible to crack. Pretty much everyone I know also downloaded music, TV and films from various file sharing sites.

This trend still continues, and whilst I agree with the fact that piracy is indeed stealing, I view it in the same way that I would view someone who had nothing, and had no way to make money, and was forced to steal food to feed their family. Piracy is by and large, the fault of the companies that produce software and media. Their greed is the very thing that feeds a large percentage of piracy in my eyes. Charge a fair price and people will be more likely to pay, try and rip people off, and they will find ‘alternate means’.

My mantra is that if it’s a fair price for what I’m getting, I’ll pay for it. Something that since buying a Mac, has been reinforced in my mind. I’m very happy to pay reasonable sums for software and support the shareware community, as they charge fair prices for their products.

At the end of the day, In my field, the statement “If you don’t want to pay for it, find freeware. Find Open-Source alternatives…” just doesn’t fly. Taking the Adobe suite for example. It is THE de facto professional standard. If you don’t know how to use Photoshop in design, you may as well quit. How do you learn it as a student or junior designer? Buy it? Unlikely unless you drive a Porsche and wear an Omega watch. Piracy is the ONLY answer at this time. Admittedly some companies in the design field do create ‘Learning Edition’ versions of their apps to help students, but sometimes even they are too crippled to be of use.

At the end of the day, to combat piracy, the big companies need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to pricing strategies, and start treating their customers fairly.

I often hear that Photoshop is too expensive. I don’t think it really is. Photoshop is really aimed at professionals. Photoshop elements is geared towards the home user. Most people don’t need Photoshop, as mostly what they are doing is croping and resizing photos. Fixing red eye and maybe some color adjustment. You don’t need Photoshop to do that… Even Picassa will do all of those functions.

You have to understand… The piracy isn’t always evil! Most of the time people just can’t afford the real thing! So there are people who crack software.
Bottom line here – take example from Microsoft! To let people get the genuine OS they released some genuiniser to do it it’s cheaper then original genuine boxed CD of OS, that way giving chance to those who doesn’t have a lot of cash to have a genuine OS.

The piracy was is and will be… The question is: how developers are going to react!?

I do admit when i was younger i did pirate, BUT when i look back i really could of just asked my mother for the money and bought it. I really hate the fact i was looking at the buy now buttons, and just shrugged them off and went an found a trail or download or a download from another site. Then I went and found a serial for it. What is funny is it would of took me much less time to buy it and get a fully legal serial in my email, than to go search for a download and find a website that won’t mess up my computer for a serial

Why steal, there is always a freeware program that usually works just as good or better.

I’ve grown up in a house where pirating software and music was basically the norm. My brother and my cousins had A LOT of stuff they had pirated over the years and I never saw anything wrong with it until last year when I actually started to think about it. I’m one of the only members in my family who have stopped pirating all together. I now save up to buy software and music, and if there’s a program that is extremely expensive I’ll ask my family to pitch in and buy me it for Christmas or my birthday.

When I was much younger I did download all my software and music (steal) but since I got that career after college I pay for everything. I work at a billion dollar computer company and when I tell a fellow geek working beside me in the data center that, hey I just got this new software for only $100. They poke fun of you for going out and buying software.

Paying 300$ for Vista is still not justified. lol.. but see how many ppl are downloading Crysis….or just small start up companies making software..how are they suppose to grow if ppl don’t stop stealing…and to answer the previous guys question about Photoshop being so freaking expensive…i agree with u

I don’t support piracy, But when a company sells software for 2000$ do you really think people are going to buy it? I own 6 adobe products (Photoshop, After effects ect) and all bought with my own money.

I won’t lie, I have done things I would never think about doing now. But seriously, if a program is expensive, that means the devs took their time and effort and they have to get paid too, and developing software takes time and care to be done right. If you don’t like what it costs, find freeware or open source. Let’s say you like open source but it doesn’t do something that program X does. Learn how to develop and make the feature you want! That’s legal, you get total control and don’t risk viruses and/or the FBI knocking at your door!
Don’t pirate!

Piracy is something that is both illegal and immoral. As Chris said there are many free or open source alternatives to commonly pirated software. On a personal note I friend of mine who is big on downloading music and other “free” software through torrents received a letter in the mail one day from a law firm that was threating to sue becasue of a piece of “free” software he had download. To make a long story short the suit was dropped and he never download “free” software again.

Piracy is serious business. Back in the early 1990’s I knew a local BBS “Sysop” who actually did time and had to pay a $10,000 fine for distributing software on his board. Keep in mind this was on a local BBS, 15+ years ago when he got pinched. Nowadays it is not only easier to get caught but the penalties have also gotten exponentially stiffer.

People often underestimate the value of open software, assuming that since it’s free or considerably lower in cost than commercial software, that it must not be as good. This is a myth. Often, the open source software has a better community support base, and you’re more likely to get a quick response to a problem than if you had to wait on hold with a commercial vendor’s tech support (or in some cases, even submit an email and HOPE for a response!).

Give open source software the chance it deserves and you’re probably not going to be disappointed. AND you’ll be able to spend those hard-earned dollars!

Piracy really is starting to get out of hand now these days. Everyone likes free software, but I don’t advocate stealing by any means. A lot of companies, artists, and other people who entertain us are going down the tubes because “supporters” like to illegally download or obtain copies of software or music. Help keep these people afloat by supporting them monetarily also!

Absolutely completely agreed. Piracy is a serious serious problem nowadays. So many people are turning to this method for getting software and music so that they can score free stuff. They think “Oh. I’m only one person. Im not making a huge difference in the amount of money they make/lose.” While that may be somewhat true, because there is so many people doing it, companies are losing thousands of dollars and business.
If you like a product and you would like to see even better versions of it in the future, dont steal it from them! Your only making them closer to being out of business. Buy it or like Chris said, ask for a review copy.

You can hide your software–but if a crook really wants it, they will break into your house to get it, bribe people or what ever means to get it. I feel that most popular vendors have a trial download for free so why steal it?
Just for an experiment I have tried the “alternative method” and it’s way too much trouble to do it that way.

I do not support piracy, but I am sure that a couple softwares got benefits from it during the 90’s. Let me take 3DS Max as example. In its early versions it wasn’t the best professional 3D software on the market, SoftImage was better. But illegal versions of 3DS Max could be found all over the internet, and it was nearly impossible to find SoftImage. So people used 3DS Max a lot. Then 3DS Max gained a strong user community and it is now more popular than SoftImage.
This is an isolate case, but I am 100% sure that 3DS Max wouldn’t be what it is now without piracy (I mean it wouldn’t be as good and as widely spread).
And would Windows be on every computer if it wasn’t possible to get illegal versions of it back in the 90’s? Maybe we would all be using another operating system now…

good point there, Oli Kenobi…

when i say to people ‘i use utorrent to download stuff’ they automaticaly go ‘esssh! your gonna get fined for copyright!’ and i say why? they reply with its illegal. I try my best to explain it but they will always disagree, anyways i hate pirating and will never use utorrent to do it even though it is tempting seen as like 70% of stuff in torrent is illegal. anyone got a good website that ONLY has legal torrents?

software to me is not worth cash period, I will try my absolute hardest to find a free way to get what i want online so i can use it.

my ass. im not paying $600 for a photo editor. GIMP is rubbish compared to Photoshop. as if me getting photoshop will kill adobe.

soo i can get free games for haveing a blog……. someone go indepth of this plz, im kinda interested in it

On top of that, how would you be able to accurately determine these statistics?

… except in the cases where the trials either a) are too short, b) are too crippled, or c) don’t exist.

“Don’t pirate!” – no I don’t. Pirates are ruthless killers if they cannot get what they want.

So is unlicensed intellectual property sharing and use a crime to be criticized morally? When we discuss this today – internationally – this should be put into historical perspective. There was a time when the US were considered to be the worst copyright “pirates” – and the US handled this not as a moral question, but as a problem of national interest. I found this:

Towards a Political Economy of Information
by Roberto Verzola (Philippines)

http://rverzola.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/infoeconomy-verzola.pdf

Especially:
“U.S. piracy in the 19th century” (starting at page 14)

Americans were “suspicious about international copyright,” and were afraid that recognizing international copyright meant “exploitation and domination of their book trade.” Barnes noted that “as a young nation, the United States wanted the freedom to borrow literature as well as technology from any quarter of the globe, and it was not until 1891 that Congress finally recognized America’s literary independence…

“In 1831, ‘An Act to Amend the Several Acts Respecting Copyrights’ was signed. It extended the copyright term from fourteen to twentyeight years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen. If an author died, his widow or children could apply for the extension. For the first time, the law allowed musical compositions to be copyrighted. But not a word on international copyright. In fact, foreign authors were explicitly barred from protection, which in essence safeguarded reprints.”

Even the U.S. president at that time, John Quincy Adams, was himself “strongly opposed to international copyright.”

In 1837, Senator Henry Clay introduced a copyright bill before the U.S. Senate. Within days, “a flood of negative memorials reached Washington,” and objections deluged both houses of Congress. The U.S. Senate’s Patent Committee rejected “the intention of the measure,” its reasons sounding very much like the justification today of Third World countries for their liberal attitude towards intellectual property…

The Committee also explained why international patents were acceptable but not international copyrights: “American ingenuity in the arts and practical sciences, would derive at least as much benefit from international patent laws, as that of foreigners. Not so with authorship and bookmaking. The difference is too obvious to admit of controversy.”

In short, the Americans stood to gain a lot of benefits by recognizing international patents; and they likewise stood to gain a lot of benefits by not recognizing international copyrights. _It was purely a matter of national interest._

=

I would be happy to get some comments.
Norbert Klein, Phnom Penh / Cambodia
nhklein@gmx.net

I WIN

whatever man, I have way more important things to do than go on a neverending battle with a pirate of the cybercaribbean

Well you just walked the plank…ahahaha

I will carry on this arguement then. Lets just put it like this. I hope someone breaks into your house and steals everything. Similar to you stealing from adobe. You can chuck out any arguementyou want but its the same thing. you’re taking something illegally. Whats the point?

Lets just put it like this. I hope someone breaks into your house and puts pirated software everywhere.

this video convinced me to get off piracy. i now use nothing but freeware.

dont want to pay for windows xp

Try before Buy!

thats why trial versions exists

you are gay and you should kill youself

how do i get you to suck shit for free,,, completely legally???

YOU THINK DOWNLOADING STUFF ILLEGALLY IS FREE!?!

good cause it is ^_^

yea

equating real property to intellectual property= ignorance
equating piracy to stealing= ignorance

if you steal a car, that equals 1 less car to sell. if you download a program, they still have the same number of physical product.

Your a fucking idiot! The whole reason Adobe Photoshop is what it is today, Is because of software piracy! Do your god damn research man.

it is when an 11 year old can click 2 buttons and ge thier 3000$ software in 20 minutes for free

The very nature of information is to be copied.
It won’t end.
It’s its nature.

thankyou to all crackers hackers and packers lol

amen

Piracy will never end. The fact is – It is so easy to pirate software, can take literaly 2 mins to crack a program worth 1k

I’m not a pirate by the way, yours sincerely,

Capt. LJ Silver

piracy is fair adobe software can cost like £500 thats criminal in itself a new film cosrs £15 costs no more that 50p to make im not a pirate but i do think they r sort of helping people particually young producers who cant pay thousans for the adobe software locally thst same stuff costs £3

The problem with information is it’s just it’s nature to be duplicated, copied, modified… Physical objects on the other hand, take material that must be manipulated and gathered.

You can code a program once, but sell it a million times.

If you make a physical object, like a sculpture, well, you have to make it AGAIN to sell another thing of it, and most are sold for less than somthng like photoshop or a video editing program.

I don’t know maybe I explained poorly, but I hope you get the point.

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Copyrights don’t protect labor, they protect royalties. Developers do the work once, then they sit back and turn into the richest people on earth. And the reason people are more likely to download software than to rip off a power tool from the local hardware store is because deep down they realize that someone had to actually manufacture, pack, ship, and stock the product they’re lifting whereas “sharing copies” of an obscenely priced copyrighted work over an Internet connection involves no labor or contribution on the copyright owners part whatsoever, so it’s not so much a matter of stealing as a matter of denying royalties on a capital investment, which is sort of like calling someone thief for not paying their banks obscene interest rate for use of their credit. No matter what the laws say, no matter what the sycophants say, no matter what the profiteers say about the unfairness of P2P sharing, everyday people just can’t get their head around the idea that they’re hurting someone and deserve to be jailed for passing information back and forth. These draconian copyright laws destroy lives to protect the greedy. Charge reasonable fees for software, and people will pay for it. Rip them off wantonly, and they will turn around and rip you off.

hey mike mouse !!!
rules a mike to broken

If you didnt buy the software in the first place where do you think the money is going to come from to keep the big companys going.
You shouldnt choose the illegal path even If you can’t offerd it, its the wrong way.
Programmers work so hard to make these programs for us and people just pirate them or download cracks. NO! That is just madly wrong and you should never do it.

how all of this people say it’s nature you don’t know how they work to make this program or just support you if you bought it what did you say,Guys?????!!!.

The piracy costs the Companies 48000 Millions of Dollars,we must appreciate the work.

and if you won’t buy it use a free software like Gimp Alternative to Photoshop or get Pixelmetor.

BITLORD!

who the hell wants to pay 300 and something for software if the price was lowered then piracy would decrease.

aaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

UTORRNT

i don’t like pirates! they are mean