South Africans pirate more software

vodacom3g said:
Someone above posted that a young, budding graphics designer can't afford R3K for a design package. Really? He / she probably spent R10K on the latest desktop. :rolleyes:
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You forgot to mention that they probably also spent over R10k on their ridiculously expensive 2 year Vodacom cellphone contract. :rolleyes:
 
Yup pirating vodacom would be flippin insane because cell companies are just the best example of what happens when you cannot get something via another source, they collude to keep pricing as high as possible and rape the public, i don't hear people screaming how vodacom and the like rip us off, yet we download stuff and get branded thiefs :p

Funny how companies are happy to screw us so badly with a rusty old pipe with jagged edges but when we screw back we are the bad guys.
 
An IDC study that was released in January 2008 found that reducing software piracy could generate hundreds of thousands of new jobs as well as billions of dollars in economic growth.
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I don't see this happening. They are way too optimistic. Microsoft will still employ the same number of programmers and marketing guys to do their bidding. There might be a few extra support jobs created but I doubt it cause if the guys who pirate now are getting by without support they will probably not need it.

I think that they should reduce the price of their software. It costs a fixed amount of money to actually produce the product. There are some support etc costs after it is released but they could still make massive amounts of cash if they reduced the price.

That said I believe software piracy is wrong. I bought Office 2007, run legal Windows XP, bought my AV package and use Open Source for the rest.
 
If a company is ripping us off then it is also considered stealing

And some programs you must "upgrade" to the new version or buy the newest version to be compatible with new operating systems, like with Windows Vista.
 
Microsoft should maybe take some of the billions they make, take less while employing more people.

WTF do they need with all that money, do people like bill gates need 60 billion and then still need to moan about piracy? Not that he operates anymore but it kinda makes me laugh when the head of microsoft at one stage who was worth an estimated 60 billion dolla was moaning about piracy.

I guess when companies do make extreme amounts of money they get all upset.
 
vodacom3g said:
Pricing is just the current, convenient excuse used by pirates. Even if pricing drops substantially, they'll still pirate. I'm sure I'll be taken up on this statement, but if you look how often low value products get pirated, it indicates that piracy is not connected to pricing.

A while ago, on this forum, there were people looking for pirated copies of something you had to pay R5 for on the MXiT network. :rolleyes:

I find it interesting that these pirates are quite happy to buy all their hardware instead of stealing it. So paying a couple of thousand for a PC or laptop is fine. But when it comes to the OS and apps making all that hardware actually do something, suddenly 'pricing' is now an issue.

Clearly it is rather an issue of "I can steal software and get away with it, but can't easily steal hardware."

So to justify the theft of software, pricing in now suddenly the problem. :rolleyes:

Someone above posted that a young, budding graphics designer can't afford R3K for a design package. Really? He / she probably spent R10K on the latest desktop. :rolleyes:

Pirates pirate because they can. And because they somehow deem theft of a non-physical product OK. While stealing a real, physical object is actually wrong (cars, PC's, etc.)

But they do feel a hint of guilt, thus the warped justifications for breaking the law we keep on seeing on this and other forums.
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I pirated basically everything except the few odd games that I could afford in high school / studying years with my allowance. Now that I have an income I'm slowly going legal on all the games/programs that wasn't available free (or opensource).

"Warped justifications" and "grey areas" are very much dependant on any individual's point of view. I'm not saying piracy is right, but I'm also not saying that I'm going to report myself to nearest police station and demand proper jailtime for my crimes.

*edit -snip-snip* Without discussing piracy per se: the reporting of piracy, which this article that we are discussing, is doing, is certainly done the WRONG WAY IMO. *edit*

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Oh and let's play nice people, the thread is going to get locked pretty soon from the looks of things.
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Locked? What forum do you come from? Apart from going ape and swearing at each other this will never be closed.
 
Here's an idea. Maybe look into customs inflating their charges of imports and maybe we will buy the products and it's not just about the price, it's also about the product. If it's worth buying I will. If it's a piece of cr*p the developer couldn't bother spending more time on then why should I pay for half a job. Window's for example, find me one user that has never had to re-install it because it eventually failed.

and as for creating more jobs? You mean creating more incredible corruptions... no thanks

Edit: Funnily enough the products that are open-source are more reliable than those which need to be bought, that says something for you.
 
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We're South African developers of digital signage software and have had to change our software licensing system to be more restrictive because of pirating, not from SA, but from Portugal of all places.

An IT company there supplied a hospital with our software in it's 30 day trial mode and would reformat Windows on each player PC and reinstall out software every 30 days. 80 PC's! Can you believe it, it was worth their while to employ a starter techie to do that rather than pay us. No doubt they billed their client. Our prices are very competitive for our industry I might add.

Expect to see more applications requiring online authentication.
 
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vodacom3g said:
Pricing is just the current, convenient excuse used by pirates. Even if pricing drops substantially, they'll still pirate. I'm sure I'll be taken up on this statement, but if you look how often low value products get pirated, it indicates that piracy is not connected to pricing.

A while ago, on this forum, there were people looking for pirated copies of something you had to pay R5 for on the MXiT network. :rolleyes:

I find it interesting that these pirates are quite happy to buy all their hardware instead of stealing it. So paying a couple of thousand for a PC or laptop is fine. But when it comes to the OS and apps making all that hardware actually do something, suddenly 'pricing' is now an issue.

Clearly it is rather an issue of "I can steal software and get away with it, but can't easily steal hardware."

So to justify the theft of software, pricing in now suddenly the problem. :rolleyes:

Someone above posted that a young, budding graphics designer can't afford R3K for a design package. Really? He / she probably spent R10K on the latest desktop. :rolleyes:

Pirates pirate because they can. And because they somehow deem theft of a non-physical product OK. While stealing a real, physical object is actually wrong (cars, PC's, etc.)

But they do feel a hint of guilt, thus the warped justifications for breaking the law we keep on seeing on this and other forums.
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Correction piracy is linked to price as proven my economists around the world and by a UCT Microeconomics professor.

I do not know where you studied economics but most text books have a chapter on it. Simple supply & demand.

The market did not demand a good/service at R5 and pirated or searched for an alternative until true market value can be determined.

Piracy also occurs where there are no alternatives goods/services available.
 
Piracy costs a company money in only one instance: when a person who has the means and inclination to buy the software pirates it instead. I can get a pirated copy of Oracle, but that doesn’t mean I’ve cost that company money, because if I couldn’t pirate it, I wouldn’t buy it — I’d use something cheaper or free.
 
I haven't pirated anything for 2 years now. I've even bought Vista and I also buy MP3s.

That said: I have nothing against pirates. I understand why they do it and in my opinion, it's good for the industry.

If it wasn't for piracy I would probably never have gotten into computers. It was just waaaay too expensive to buy all the wonderful stuff to play around with when I was a kid. And I'm not talking just about games here. I played around with loads of different software packages and learned new skills.

But now I am older and now I can afford my software, so I buy it. Sure I don't play nearly as many games as I used to - I now consider very carefully where my money will go. And this is why not every pirate copy is a lost sale. I used to play every single game that came out. No way in hell, even if I had the money back then, would I have paid for some of those games.

In closing: Piracy != stealing; Piracy is good advertising; Piracy helps keep prices down.
 
If there were less pirates, more jobs would be created for the people who can't afford to buy the stuff in the first place AKA the pirates :P
 
WoW said:
Correction piracy is linked to price as proven my economists around the world and by a UCT Microeconomics professor.

I do not know where you studied economics but most text books have a chapter on it. Simple supply & demand.

The market did not demand a good/service at R5 and pirated or searched for an alternative until true market value can be determined.

Piracy also occurs where there are no alternatives goods/services available.
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Agree on your last point. Also, as someone above posted, if you try and actually buy something and can't, pirating does become an option. I recently bought a copy of a new Garmin map. They SHIPPED it on CD! (a software company that does not offer downloads, crazy). So in the 8 weeks it took to arrive, I merrily used a copy I got off a news server.

But what I'm talking about is the psychology at work here. The same people who would not dream of walking into a PC shop and stealing a PC or a hard drive, are quite happy to pirate software.

There's something about the fact that it's a non-physical product (a MP3 or a software application) that somehow makes it more acceptable.
 
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vodacom3g said:
There's something about the fact that it's a non-physical product (a MP3 or a software application) that somehow makes it more acceptable.
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I'll tell you the key difference... with a physical item, if I take it, then you won't have that item anymore. Therefore, stealing something tangible constitutes removing it from you.

Software on the other hand is different. If I copy your windows, you loose nothing. Obviously Microsoft etc won't be GAINING as much had I paid for the software, but am I stealing it AWAY FROM YOU? nope...
 
Increases in software sales goes directly to the investors pockets, they feel **** about job creation or charity.

For the life of me I can't see how an increase in software sales == more job opportunities. The budget and life-cycle of a software project are always pre-determined and based on a realistic sales prediction of what the target market is, and what they can afford.

A once off effort to create a self-sustainable product with the possibility of little work for immense returns, whereas creating a product by the continued effort of low-paid factory workers in sweat shops is just not the same.
 
article said:
The worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy countries, therefore the worldwide piracy rate increased by three percentage points to 41% in 2008.
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CONCLUSIVE proof that piracy is actually driving the growth of IT in emerging markets. Thus, paying ridiculous prices for software is actually *stifling* job creation and thus, if the BSA & co. is really interested in job creation, they should support piracy with all their might. Q.E.D.
 
vodacom3g said:
There's something about the fact that it's a non-physical product (a MP3 or a software application) that somehow makes it more acceptable.
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It's called "believing that ideas cannot be considered property".

And for the record, I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with pirating something for personal use. If it was up to me, I'd even make that legal. The only point where you'd have to pay for the privilege of using IP is if you were using it within the confines of a business.
 
Piracy 4 Real.....

It rose up by a percent ?? Maybe they we're looking for that extra percent ?? Aren't pirates entrepreneurs in a sense ?? Would pirates really be honest enough to vote correctly in polls if it is poll or survey based ?? Doesn't piracy actually create jobs as they need to employ people to combat piracy ??
 
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