SA bangs the piracy drum

[Kosmik]

Granted, some Open Source software solutions might not be as polished as their commercial counterparts, but who cares as long as the job gets done in the end?

I still prefer OpenOffice above the rubbish they call Microsoft Office 2007...

Well, the new office 2010 start is going to be free I beleive. Basic word,excell etc.

 

[w1z4rd]

Well, the new office 2010 start is going to be free I beleive. Basic word,excell etc.

Yeah, I think MS are waking up to the fact that they have to find alternative revenue streams to compete with FOSS.

In all honesty, I will try this out when it comes out... and might use it more depending on how intrusive the advertising is.

 

[TelkomUseless]

Was given the pricing for VS 2010 yesterday.

Pro - $1119
Premuim - $4500
Team - $11,500

Small development companies will be hurt a lot by this.

But you can go for the free version too.

Those prices are for companies that have $$$ or make $$ (Doesn't Team include TFS (which has testing software ,source control etc included ? hence more expensive).

But I agree, pricing should be determine per region.

 

[gregmcc]

Yawn. Here we go again.

 

[Kosmik]

But you can go for the free version too.

Those prices are for companies that have $$$ or make $$ (Doesn't Team include TFS (which has testing software ,source control etc included ? hence more expensive).

But I agree, pricing should be determine per region.

Technicly I think you violate the license agreement for the free version for comercial use.

Yes Team has a few more features and is also 5 Licenses. But the complaint is that VS 2008 Team was about $6000, thats a $5000 price hike. The other prices are pretty much the same except for premuim which I think has gone up about $1000.

 

[rsd]

If you're using TFS you have bigger problems than expensive software... e.g. having been dropped on your head as a child.

 

[spiderz]

BSA - another good reason to switch to Open Source and give them a finger.

 

[spiderz]

Was given the pricing for VS 2010 yesterday.

Pro - $1119
Premuim - $4500
Team - $11,500

Small development companies will be hurt a lot by this.

Is there no Opensource or alternative software Package you can consider beside's MS's Bloatware?

 

[grim]

http://www.motivationalz.com/pictures/download_a_car.jpg

 

[LCBXX]

Yet again the BSA omits how they arrived at the 41% figure. 41% could be 41 instances of pirated Bejelwed games used by staff in their offices, for all we know.

 

[Wyzak]

Good article... another thing to keep in mind is that hardly any software used has been developed and sold locally. Hence even if 5% of those pirates do go out and buy the software legally after pressure was put on them, that 5% will be flowing straight out of the country.

 

[Quest10n]

Someone at the BSA is going to get a new BMW :erm:

 

[JoSorc]

Was given the pricing for VS 2010 yesterday.

Pro - $1119
Premuim - $4500
Team - $11,500

Small development companies will be hurt a lot by this.

Sign up with Bizspark and get it for free.

 

[JoSorc]

The underlying assumption in this figure is that if piracy was somehow eradicated overnight, each and every person with a piece of illegal software would rush out and buy a legitimate copy. Clearly this is not going to happen.

Most users will simply do without the software or switch to something more affordable or even open source. A huge part of the problem with software is that it is expensive and most users just can't afford the price tag. Having a pirated copy is nice but not nice enough to convince them to hand over thousands of rands to buy a legitimate copy.

It is the same in the music industry. Just because a teenager has a couple of thousand songs with dubious origins on their MP3 player does not mean that they are in the position to buy all the music legitimately. So instead of paying thousands over to the music industry they will simply do without when put under pressure.

I understand the point but if you can't afford it can't ****ing have it. Huh?

 

[JoSorc]

You can buy the single songs off most albums (you get to pick and choose so the argument of the rest of the album is crap is out the window) for less than the price of a beer.

 

[psichron]

http://psichron.za.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/bsa-are-pirates1.jpg bsa-are-pirates1.jpg

(BSA van with a big scary satellite dish on its roof)

 

[noxibox]

Legitimate software is itself often infected with malware/spyware. Even when paying for software it is often necessary to acquire patches to disable the malware deliberately included by the software producer.

Overall not paying for software is totally appropriate in poorer countries. Whether that means using free open source options or simply not paying for commercial software is a matter of individual choice.

 

[CeeBee]

strange how they got to the 41%.... nobody asked me how much I've got.
I have 3 home pcs, and in charge of about 60 at the office.
Of course, I'm happy to advise that the computers at the office are legit software only, dont wanna risk it.
must admit to 'some' software on home pc, of 'dubious' source, and definately not even near 5% of the total number
still, nobody checked with me, so how can they assume.

and its still an issue of making the assumption, that a pirated copy automatically means a lost sale.
I agree with many other guys.... if the copied version was not available, then I would simply go without it.

I've got quite a few titles, when they came out on the 'budget' label in the shops, even though it will be quite easy, and cheaper too, to just download it.

 

[Avenue]

excellent article, well put!!

 

[JoSorc]

excellent article, well put!!

No it isn't ave. It tries to legitimize a culture of entitlement. WTF? If you can't afford it, you can't have it. If the creator/supplier chain sets a price out of your bracket. Hard Luck! It is theirs!