BSA Claims Half of PC Users Are Pirates 585
judgecorp writes "Despite continued pressure on business users to buy legitimate software, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) reports that the campaign seems to be failing. Well over half (57%) of users surveyed in a global survey admit to using pirated software. That's a big increase from the same survey last year — when 43% admitted to using pirated software. The BSA surveyed 15,000 people in 33 countries."
Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Only half?
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Insightful)
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The *percentage* doesn't have to be going down to indicate a switch FLOSS....
cheers,
WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:3, Funny)
C'mon! Let's get to 100% PEOPLE!
That'll be just for the attitude of those bastards. ;-)
Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon! Let's get to 100% PEOPLE!
That'll be just for the attitude of those bastards. ;-)
Actually BSA thinks that all the PC users are pirates - but they are scared that if they tell the truth as it is, they'll look like loons
Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that right. If the majority of the population breaks the law, there is a problem with the law.
Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not fully. I fully respect that companies need a way to make profit.
This is not a problem with the law, its often a problem with the companies. Asking way too much for certain products or having a horrible distribution scheme. Say about bittorrent what you wish, but if I actually look for some software, I find it, usually having to only look for 1 site. And it doesn't annoy the fuck out of me during installation.
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But laws aren't "supposed" to be for protecting companies. Laws are supposed to serve the people. And that's just the point isn't it. Copyright doesn't serve the people.
Even copyright is supposed to be about promoting progress, hence serving the people...seen as it doesn't really do that, not to mention nobody respects it, it's time to scrap it. That you think it's about protecting profits is telling.
Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:4, Interesting)
Once upon a time, the majority of the population believed the Earth was flat.
What the majority believes may be wrong some times.
Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US? (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Today is different (Score:4, Informative)
Global warming *is* happening. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_temperature_record [wikipedia.org]
We've been measuring the global average temperature for 150 years, and the graph in the top right tells the story of what's been happening to global averages. Only an idiot looks at that graph and says that the temperature is actually going down.
What may or may not be in question is how much of an impact we're actually having on it, and how much of it is a natural trend. They argue that there was actually a mini ice age in the middle ages, and that this is a natural warming of the world as a result of coming out of it. They point to what the Vikings called Vineland, and remind us that they used to grow grapes for wine in Greenland. What they forget is that this mini ice age was caused by the Romans deforesting Europe, and that most of those trees have not grown back... there has to be another reason that the global cooling they caused has been reversing itself.
Beyond that, the thing that's particularly annoying about climate change deniers is that we know that these hydrocarbons (which most climate change scientists are saying is the root cause) are not good for human health. They have been linked to several types of cancers, and are a contributing factor to other quality-of-life diseases like asthma. We also know that exposure to smog has detrimental effects on the local flora and fauna. (well, some plants it's like super fertilizer, but it kills others). Knowing these detrimental effects exist, what surprises me is that some climate change deniers are actively campaigning against change, because they believe global warming to be a myth. Even if we can't agree whether humankind is responsible for the climate change, can we at least agree that reducing hydrocarbon emissions is a good thing to be trying to do regardless on its impact on the global average temperature?
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That'll be just for the attitude of those bastards. ;-)
Sterling Ball, [cnet.com] CEO and founder Ernie Ball's son said almost the exact same thing:
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No, it does not have to, but as less people have to pay for rubbish, I assume that the percentage of people that are paying for rubbish decreases, therefore, the motivation to use pirate software should also decrease and so should piracy.
Indeed, some of us don't pirate any software at all. We use Linux variants exclusively at home, and the vast majority of our software is FOSS (LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, VLC, Octave, LaTeX, Chromium, etc.), or at least freely licensed (Opera).
However, we do pay for licenses for some software, including Mathematica, Bibble Pro, Noise Ninja, and FotoPlayer. These vendors were farsighted enough to make Linux or cross-platform versions of their software, and their products happen to fit our needs
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I dual boot win7 and Ubuntu and there is still no comparison.
There in lies the problem "dual booting". If you are serious about running a Linux desktop you have to have your favourite Linux distro as your only OS and for those who still need their Microsoft fix then run the MS OS in a virtual machine otherwise you may just as well forget it and run a Microsoft OS. As for getting "more work done in Win 7" are you talking about MS Office or something else and have you or your work paid for it. I have been using a pure Linux (Fedora) distribution for a few years now in
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Horses for courses", mate.
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I thought that too.. in 1995.
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If you are really serious about running both, it probably makes the most sense to have Linux host a minimal Windows VM.
If you absolutely positively need to run some bit of Windows software, run it in a minimal environment that will have the smallest possible surface area vulnerable to the wide array of malware that tends to infect Microsoft products.
It's useful to separate out the OS from the apps. The fact that some of the apps might be interesting is quite distinct from the fact that the OS is crap.
People
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Can we drop this "automagically" word? It freaks me out...
It's the correct word. The installation is done by invoking a daemon.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think it depends on your hardware, as ever. Pangolin installed and ran flawlessly on my two (different) laptops. The older one was an upgrade from 11.10. I also run Windows 64 for games, and for the record, it's as solid as a rock. I have no particular axe to grind with regard to this position.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Funny)
Do you have any idea how many people steal Linux? It is OFF THE CHARTS how many people don't pay for it! It's an epidemic, I tell you, horrifying!
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They only download it to try it out, then uninstall it and reinstall Windows...
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly, there are an abundance of reports stating exactly that. During BSA audits sysadmins can't produce paid licenses and receipts for every install of Linux and all the FOSS they have installed. That's reason #1 to refuse to cooperate in any sort of way with them until they produce a warrant. It'll cost you in legal expenses, but that's cheaper than their "fines" and licenses to come into compliance.
I've known *many* business owners who have received their bulk mailed warnings of impending audits, and offered to let the install the BSA audit tool to bring themselves into compliance. {sigh}
This topic has already been discussed ad nauseum on here over the years. I'm surprised they are still able to operate at all. Oh ya, they're sponsored by big corporations, they can do whatever they want.
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> Another thing is that a lot of people do get different devices over the lifetime of a computer
It's not the 80s anymore. This is not nearly the problem it used to be. With the exception of a few notoriously proprietary hardware vendors (basicially Apple) most stuff is simply not that hostile to unsupported platforms.
It's a new century. There's this thing called USB. Perhaps you've heard of it. Fixes a lot of these problems. You don't need monopolyware just to use peripherals.
I find it terribly ironic th
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Funny)
Cmon, we can do better than 57%
Now now, they surveyed 15,000 people and worked out that 170 million of them are using pirated software. So that's pretty typical anti-piracy maths.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Interesting)
Note that the above is true only on ARM. They're making PCs a pain by mandating default Secure Boot to Windows and leaving it up in the air if it'll be possible to customize the bootloader keys, but not mandating lock down on them.
They would if they could, yes, but their own legacy is too big for them to do so, let alone anti-competiton concerns.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Over half of PC users worldwide have admitted to using pirate software
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
The blame lies 100% at the door of the greedy corporations who are gouging.
Not really. If you believe they are gouging then don't use their products, use a free alternative, like GIMP instead. Now the reason I say that is because I believe piracy is not a way of protest, in fact it just makes it worse. Consider that - as many here will attest - piracy != lost sale so piracy isn't necessarily 'hurting' the company, what it does is cement the idea that the software in question is the best (or at least 'necessary'), superior to cheaper or free alternatives, thus making it the de-facto standard in the market and driving out cheaper or free competitors.
The same thing happens with other software too, Windows for example. People claim to not like it and to pirate it to only use it out of necessity, but that just drives its use in the market leading to more people to use it out of necessity so to a degree piracy drives legitimate sales.
Obviously if legitimate sales start to sag but usage continues to grow then the companies see piracy as a problem.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
I should have put this in the above post but personally I think the 'Free for non-Commercial Use' model is a good method for most paid software companies. I see it as viable predominantly because it wouldn't be far from the system we have now (as in it would require minimal changes) except that these home users - that are probably just using the software for hobby or educational purposes and can't justify the cost nor the infringement penalties anyway - would not be painted as 'criminals' and those who derive income from the tools they use would be the ones who pay for the development of said tools.
It's not a perfect solution and it's not the only solution, but it's more harmonious while being not too far removed from what we have now.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is exactly why - if anything - software piracy is helping companies get market share and eliminate competition. Better to use an alternative than to pirate.
In other markets this balances out because if a company's product is too expensive people turn to alternatives, when that company loses marketshare they either adapt - by lowering their price or adding more value - or they die, but in the case of software people can pirate and since in most cases a piracy != lost sale that won't kill the company but it will increase their marketshare. That can then get to the case in point where the market leader is perceived - by many - to be massively overpriced but since they are effectively the only game in town there are few - if any - viable alternatives.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty much this. A program sells for $700 when a reasonable facsimile is available for free, legitimately. Same is true for almost every other piece of software that sells for hundreds of bucks. People realize the stuff really just isn't worth that much.
It doesn't even matter if the alternative isn't identical or not as good. It's free. By normal human rationale, that means the other similar one can't possibly warrant a price that high. Sure, it may be a little better, but not $700 vs $0 better. And that's how I believe most people rationalize piracy.
These companies would probably be ahead giving away the core software for free to home users and collecting some here and there on microtransactions.
Piracy = supporting the biggest market player (Score:5, Interesting)
* There is an entrenched piece of software by company A used by most people that costs 700$.
* There is a startup company B producing similar thing that costs 50$.
Now in case you pirate the software produced by company A, that's not a lost sale for company A. That's more a lost sale for company B.This kind of behaviour will lead to demise of company B and company A will become a monopoly. Add to this network effects and zero distribution costs and file format lock-in etc- they will only speed things up.
What I want to say is that software market in general is easily dominated by big established companies. It's almost impossible to compete with established players, even if you sell a similar/better product for less. And piracy is one of the things responsible for that.
Now markets where you need to offer support or adaptation/localization of software (enterprise markets) are somewhat different. And that's where Linux shines.
--Coder
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the other half used free software...
Re:Underestimation? (Score:5, Insightful)
TFA is just a troll. Or flamebait. Or both. I don't know.
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering the population of China, India, Africa, half is rather surprising. Looking at the study, in the top 20 the only places UNDER 50% are the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, S Korea and Australia. Interestingly they twist the logic around so the USA, with the lowest rate of piracy at 19% has the highest "value" of pirated software. Not really sure how we beat China at a 77% piracy rate, which seems both low as a rate and low as a $ value. Maybe the Chinese just pirate cheap software?
The quick conclusion I draw after looking at the actual study is that people generally pay for software they can afford (affluent western countries) and people who can't afford it don't pay for it. Is this supposed to be surprising?
Re:Underestimation? (Score:4, Informative)
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The other half, being average PC users, didn't realize they were doing it.
Outlier (Score:3)
The only stuff I possess which isn't pirated, is free software...
Fuck copyright.
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Different Approach? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Different Approach? (Score:5, Insightful)
When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
When you have lawyers on staff, every problem looks like an ambulance.
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When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
When you have lawyers on staff, every problem looks like a wambulance.
FTFY
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When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
When you have lawyers on staff, every problem looks like an ambulance.
When every problem looks like a nail, and you have a hammer, you are likely going to need a lot of lawyers and a lot of ambulances.
Re:Different Approach? (Score:4, Insightful)
Quite the opposite. This is great news for the RIAA and the like. Now whenever they do their scattershot lawsuits, they have a rock solid legal argument. "No your honor, we don't have any evidence. But statistically speaking, the defendant is almost certainly guilty!"
Re:Different Approach? (Score:4, Funny)
They should continue it in order to make using their software suck even more.
I suggest "anvil-sized, spiked, parallel port dongles painted with necrotizing fasciitis" be required for every closed-source program.
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The weather is 100F outside and my air conditioner goes out. My current indoor temperature is 75F. Wanting to stay cool, I rig up some fans to create an air flow throughout the house. The temperature gradually rises to about 90F, which is lower than what it would have been sans fans. Is the temperature increase clear evidence that my solution was the wrong one and I should try something different? No it's not.
Well actually yes it is, it's obviously the indication that fixing the air conditioner is thing you should do...duh.
But what's the 100F outside temperature in this case? You don't know, you're just speculating that such a thing could conceivably exist, if you apply that idiotic theory to everything then you can never prove anything.
So the way it works is that if you think i'm wrong you're welcome to try and disprove it with some facts, but of course you can't, not only that but my conclusion is based on t
The BSA should sue the BSA (Score:5, Interesting)
The Boy Scouts of America have been using that TLA for a lot longer than the Business Software Alliance has existed. The former should sue the latter for damaging the reputation of their acronym.
Re:The BSA should sue the BSA (Score:5, Funny)
So in other words we should have the Boy Scouts go all WWF on the BSA?
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Re:The BSA should sue the BSA (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
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Pay per view, I'd buy it.
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So in other words we should have the Boy Scouts go all WWF on the BSA?
The real BSA [wikipedia.org] would have to shoot those little kids. Then ride away on motorcycles.
And 43% of those surveyed... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And 43% of those surveyed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not all of the 43%. Some of us have learned from the Ernie Ball story and moved off closed source entirely.
Re:And 43% of those surveyed... (Score:5, Informative)
In case anyone is wondering, here is a nice interview [cnet.com] that covers the story pretty much start to finish.
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I'd love to see the questions they use.
I can safely say in at least 2-3 years I have acquired any pirate software. I don't have anything I'll-acquired on my in-use systems... Bout there might be something on old HDD somewhere.
I used "pirate" opposed to "licensed" because they take their definition a set FURTHER than LEGAL definition of "infringement". Use stock Ubuntu... You're a pirate because of patents and such like you didn't PAY for it.
along the same line, my workplace actively locks down PCs from use
Their lips are moving... you know what that means. (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously...
Need to come up with a final solution for piracy! (Score:3)
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It's the only way to stop the evil pirates! People who copy copyrighted material illegally will bring about the end of the world!
You To Can Report Software Piracy (Score:4, Funny)
Do you know a company using illegal software? Report it now and you could be rewarded with cash!
What are you waiting for, click on the link below, now!!!
Re:You To Can Report Software Piracy (Score:5, Funny)
OK I clicked on the link below (it said "Reply to This".)
Now what? Where is my cash reward?
This clears me (Score:3, Funny)
I use a Mac!
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does not use serial numbers or any sort of DRM to begin with.
Most of my tools use registration keys.
SecureCRT, FinalCut Studio, MS-Office, TextMate, IntelliJ, etc... It's a long list.
Re:Most mac software (Score:4, Insightful)
Because Apple are usually smart enough to realise that serial numbers and drm schemes only cause inconvenience to paying customers...
So how does that explain the DRM in Final Cut Pro X which uses the iTunes receipt in the app folder to validate the install? The definitely have DRM in there.
Phrasing (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you know what the article doesn't tell you?
How the question was phrased, which makes a helluva lot of difference in the results of any poll.
"Tell me, sir, do you still pirate software?"
"Well... uh... no."
"So you admit that you USED to pirate software?"
"Well... no."
"So you admit you pirate software now, but didn't used to?"
"Well... uh..."
"So how often do you beat your wife?"
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The wording may not be so blatant, surveys can paint a picture without leading on to what they are actually asking. It would be very informative if the BSA actually posted the survey questions/responses and other details to see how it was conducted.
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Yes, this reminds me of an episode on Yes Prime Minister where Sir Humphrey Appleby discusses this very thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA [youtube.com]
Crackpipe statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
This can only mean one thing. (Score:3)
Sounds like Cop Statistics to me. (Score:5, Insightful)
Cops figured this out decades ago - no matter that crime stats have been falling for ten years, somehow the police always need more people, more equipment, and tougher laws.
Any survey by the BSA - or any group with a vested interest - is automatically suspect.
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If *most* of the population are criminals... (Score:5, Insightful)
is it really a crime?
This country is, at least in theory, a democracy. If more people break that law than voted for the current president, doesn't that indicate that the majority of people don't believe that piracy is "bad"?
I feel like there should be some eloquent Latin quote for this... Ubi omnes sontes, nemo sontes? Did I get that right?
Re:If *most* of the population are criminals... (Score:5, Interesting)
I would, in fact, argue that the current traffic laws *are* broken as currently used.
Speed limits are rigged to bring in ticket money. There's a section of highway I drive daily that's marked as 45MPH (with an advisory limit of 35)... that is completely safe at 65MPH+, and regularly driven at 70. I was once passed by a Mustang I swear was doing at least 120. There are no pedestrians (it's an overpass, no foot traffic), no sharp turns, no visibility problems, no oncoming traffic, nothing that makes such a low limit (for a highway) logical. And since it merges into 65MPH traffic after just a mile, I would argue that 35MPH is in fact completely *unsafe*.
It's also been demonstrated that traffic lights with red-light cameras are almost always set to LESS safe timings to boost revenue. As for "rolling stops", yeah, those shouldn't always be illegal as well. Go on and tell me that it's unsafe to slow down to a crawl long enough to see that there's NO ONE else on the road, then continue on. Blowing through a stop sign's obviously a Bad Thing, but I see no reason to come to a complete stop when I'm the only one on the road.
So if the laws that are being broken are primarily being broken in ways that harm no one, they are obviously in need of at least revision. Should we completely throw them out? Of course not. But should we improve them? Yes.
Your point about South Africa does have merit - obviously something as harmful as rape shouldn't be legalized (although I'll not that "33% of men" is only 16% of the population, so while your general idea has significant merit, your particular was perhaps poorly-chosen). I suppose one could argue that no man-made law can violate natural law, and thus you cannot legislate away the "right not to be raped" or other such natural rights. However, as copyright is clearly an artificial legal construct, I don't think natural law is particularly relevant.
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I thought someone might counterargue that traffic laws need to be changed. You can argue that traffic laws should be changed/liberalized but you need to make some extreme changes to the laws to be consistent. You need to argue for the more extreme position of making the traffic laws so liberal that a large majority are *never* breaking them. I'm doubtful that you can do that without also making the roads much m
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I thought someone might counterargue that traffic laws need to be changed. You can argue that traffic laws should be changed/liberalized but you need to make some extreme changes to the laws to be consistent. You need to argue for the more extreme position of making the traffic laws so liberal that a large majority are *never* breaking them.
It is funny that you think that is an extreme position when that is actually the way the laws are intended to work. National DOT guidelines specify that speed limits should be set according to the "85th percentile speed" which is determined as the speed at which 85 percent of drivers naturally limit themselves to on the particular road. Most, probably all, states have incorporated those national DOT guidelines into their traffic laws. The extremists are the local yokels who post unwarranted speed limits
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Nope. That's the definition of a specific type of democracy: direct democracy [wikipedia.org]. It's not the definition of democracy in general. In addition to being a democracy, the United States is also a federal, constitutional Republic. That is not mutually exclusive with it also being a representative democracy.
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Don't be obtuse. I didn't say the US wasn't a republic. I was dismissing the bizarre rightwing meme that the US isn't a democracy because "Democracy is majority rule where as Republic is majority rule with protections for minority."
The terms "Democracy" and "Republic" are completely independent from each other. A nation can have democratic government and not be a republic. (Such as the UK or Canada.) It can be a republic and have democratic government (such as the US or France.) It can be non-democratic and
who pirates software any more? (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't needed to pirate anything in years, everything has a free and good-enough equivalent now. What does anyone pirate today?
Inaccurate (Score:3)
Something tells me they didn't even probe further, but even if they did they wouldn't have reported this part of the data. I bet that a significant portion of the 57% of "admitted pirates" are also legitimate customers who are using pirated software to bypass the annoyances (activation, DRM) that generally comes from high-profile commercial software.
57% is enough to win any race (Score:2)
If I were a politician, which I'm not, too lazy for one thing and don't like people that much, but if I were I'd be totally delighted to win any race with 57% of the voters voting for me.
I believe that's what most winning politicians would call a mandate for their policies.
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So where's the American Pirate Party?
misleading statistics (Score:5, Interesting)
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Or how General Mills - Naturally Flavored Honey Nut Cherrios still says "More WHOLE GRAIN than any other ingredient!*" They even shamelessly explain "That's why it's first on the ingredient list!" and footnote "*as compared to any other single ingredient".
So what's right after "Whole Grain Oats"? Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Honey, Brown Sugar Syrup. So basically: "sugar" in various forms, split just enough to keep #2 from overtaking #1. I guess we should be happy little mindless drones that atleast #2
I think we've all pirated at some point (Score:3)
Don't pretty much all computer users, especially those of the geeky variety, pirate software when they're kids and have little to no money to buy it?
I sure as hell did! Not because I wanted to "stick it to the man", but because I had no other way of getting software. I was a kid, I had no cash, no income. The software publishers lost nothing on me because had I not been able to pirate, I wouldn't have been able to buy the software anyway.
Now as an adult, I spend quite a bit of money on software and media. The only time I'll still download something questionable is when I cannot obtain it legally otherwise.
So surveying people asking if they've ever pirated software is going to be a naturally inflated number, because many of us did when we were kids.
BSA (Score:3)
The Bullshit Statistics Association reports that not only to 57% of PC users pirate software, but that software piracy rate among Somali pirates is actually lower than average.
"This epidemic of out-pirating the pirates causes us great concern," said BSA's chairman Slammem N. Jale. "But it's not too late. We have examples of rehabilitated pirates."
"Aaaarggh!", roared Cap'n Bluebeard. "Me mateys and I used ta blow each other ta smithereens with an illegal copy of Mine Sweeper. But we've seen the light and sent our booty ta Microsoft, aargh. What good does gold do ya when yer conscience weight upon ya like a two-ton anchor?"
Jale concludes: "Send us all your money, and you can sleep easy."
When the majority of people break a law... (Score:3)
When the majority of people break a law, it's the law that's wrong. Laws exist to support and further societal norms. When the norm is illegal, the law needs to be corrected.
Note that I'm not saying copyright should be eliminated, or that it has no value. Just that the present implementation is wrong.
Lies, damn lies and... Trialware? (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, there are lies, damn lies and statistics like these. But there is some truth to this figure -- especially in terms of expensive applications such as Photoshop. People who wouldn't pirate _anything_ else _will_ pirate Photoshop or Microsoft Office because they can't justify the expense until they establish the demand.
Of course, once they establish the demand, since they already have the software, it's 'easy' for them to 'forget' to buy a paid copy.
Happily, Adobe has seen the light and offers trialware versions of its stuff -- if more companies did the same, had reduced prices for trialware users, and so-forth, that 50-odd percent figure would likely drop dramatically.
Because software companies treat users like shit? (Score:3)
Case in point...
I recently purchased a new Asus laptop with Windows 7 pre-installed. I've nothing against Windows 7 but currently it does nothing for me that Windows XP won't and I therefore see no point in learning a new OS that, in every other respect, is just change for change's sake in the way that everything has been moved around and renamed by Microsoft.
I have a shop bought copy of XP but discovered that despite XP still being supported, Asus doesn't have drivers for all of the hardware in the laptop for XP. So in this case I resigned myself to keeping Windows 7 on the laptop.
I'm mainly a Linux guy and wanted to partition the laptop to dual boot Gentoo Linux. I backed up the Asus Windows installation partitions and then trashed the hard drive with the partitions that I wanted. But when I re-installed Windows 7 from the back-up, it trashed my partition structure and put itself back on exactly as it was when I bought it.
A friend of mine is an MSDN subscriber and gave me an ISO of Windows 7 Home Premium, exactly as on the laptop originally. So I partitioned the drive as I wanted it and installed from the Windows 7 installation DVD I had made from the ISO. When it came to putting in the W7 License Key, I copied in the one from the base of laptop, but when it finished installing W7 it told me the License Key was invalid.
I read in a magazine article that an ISO image of W7 contains all W7 versions and you can prompt W7 to ask you what version of W7 to install by removing a config file from the ISO image and reburning to DVD.
So I repeated the installation and, sure enough, I got asked which version to install - again, I chose W7 Home Premium as the laptop had come with. But once again it rejected my license key.
Having done a few searches on Google (I'm reasonably competent with Windows but more Linux orientated), I discover that I have only an OEM license for Windows 7, which basically means I am piece of shit on the bottom of Steve Ballmer's hand-made shoes and am therefore not worthy enough to install the version of Windows 7 I legally have a license to use from an installation DVD that has that version on it.
At that point in time, I could have got a W7 license key from the Internet, or maybe scrounged one from my MSDN-subscribing friend but I'm not into using pirated software any more, for the simple fact that when the time I stopped using pirated software about 5 years ago, I have never had a virus or piece of malware on Windows XP since.
As of now, I've given up with W7 on the laptop, I actually wish I'd not accepted the Microsoft T&Cs and got a refund because it's of no use to me - instead the laptop is now a Linux-only PC and I shall put my legitimate copy of XP on as a VirtualBox VM.
I do wonder if I have a case under "Fair Usage" with UK Trading Standards in this instance since it does not strike me as unreasonable to want to partition my hard drive the way I want to and to then install the provided W7 installation files onto that partition structure so I could build a dual boot.
Maybe the BSA would be interested in taking the case up as someone who, despite being treated like shit by a software company, has not chosen to pirate software as an easy solution to the problem of getting fair usage?
Re: (Score:3)
"A friend of mine is an MSDN subscriber and gave me an ISO of Windows 7 Home Premium, exactly as on the laptop originally."
"I discover that I have only an OEM license for Windows 7" [...] "I legally have a license to use from an installation DVD that has that version on it."
There's your problem. It's actually *not* exactly the same, and you were given the wrong ISO. There's more than one distribution image for Windows 7, each almost identical to the rest - except for the code that handles activation, which
I wonder (Score:3)
What would the figure be if they removed all the people who admit to using Linux etc. I think that the BSA and fellow criminals consider FOSS to be theft and "piracy".
Perhaps the numbers are 7% of people actually use non-free software without paying for it and 50% of people do not use any Free software.
The number of people, even those running Windows, who are not using any open source software is shrinking all the time. I have come accross the most un-technical people using GIMP or Open Office.
Re: (Score:3)
Over 100% of users will be pirates within just four years.
Things will be so much better when that happens. The authorities can then just arrest anyone they don't like and have a guaranteed conviction!
Re: (Score:3)
It's 57% of *users* (not population.)
The remaining 43% could be using FOSS, or FOSS users weren't counted.