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I agree, piracy figures are vastly overstated. What they do is assume that every single case of piracy translates into one lost potential sale, and multiply the number of cases by the retail price of the software. This is wrong on so many counts it's just insane. And as you say, there are various benefits to piracy (e.g. 'network effects') that ultimately raise sales by entrenching your product in the market; companies like MS in fact deliberately take advantage of this to get people 'hooked' on their software. (Of course I'm not justifying piracy, just saying these okes are full of s***.)kb said:I for one have always felt that piracy figures are vastly overstated particularly when it comes to placing a value to piracy losses. A pirated copy does not translate into a lost sale. In fact there are probably numerous cases where a pirate copy has eventually translated into more than one sale.
Turtle said:And as you say, there are various benefits to piracy (e.g. 'network effects') that ultimately raise sales by entrenching your product in the market; companies like MS in fact deliberately take advantage of this to get people 'hooked' on their software. (Of course I'm not justifying piracy, just saying these okes are full of s***.)
Uh, because he started the company? Really, it's just the way people talk, it doesn't literally mean they think he writes all the code, why are you making a big deal out of it? Or do you just see it as "proof" that reaffirms your worldview that people on these forums are clueless about MS? Honestly, people just talk this way, about every single company with a 'personality' at its head, e.g. when people talk about "Steve Jobs' computers" re: Apple they don't literally mean that SJ personally writes all the code, designs the boards and tightens every last screw in the cases, they just mean that SJ plays a big part in conceptualising, coordinating and organising many logistic as well as engineering aspects relating to the overall design, manufacture and marketing of the products. Likewise when people (used to) talk about "Henry Ford's cars" they didn't mean that HF personally put together each car - sheesh, talk about pointing out the obvious. (People tend to naturally accredit a company's head with conceptualisation of the products, even when it's inaccurate; you'll find this out when you start in the working world soon, work your butt off for a few years on some project, and then discover that everyone in the industry talks about 'your boss's products'.)slimothy said:and why do you call an organisation's software 'his'
Oh, and to answer your question:slimothy said:and where was that said
lol no no of course not, which is why I think you made that all up, at least a web link would make me know it didn't come out of your headTurtle said:""Fortune", 7/20/1998" .. look it up yourself. Oh wait, sorry, if it's on the Internet it must be true right?
Try Google, it's a "search engine" and it allows you to find information on the Internet. If you paste less than ten words from that quote you'll find it all over the Web.slimothy said:lol no no of course not, which is why I think you made that all up, at least a web link would make me know it didn't come out of your head
but yeah I guess you just happened to memorise a fortune 500 magazine from 1998, no wait, thats absurd, you just happened to be reading a fortune 500 magazine from 1998 at 6:50AM at the exact same time you loaded this thread and said, hey wait a second....