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This article needs to be counterbalanced by articles like this
http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39205464,00.htm
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.
http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39205464,00.htm
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.
I am particularly amused by the claim that R950m loss to our economy. I would like to know how much of that R950 million actually stays in South Africa since as far as I am aware Autodesk and Adobe are not South African companies.
I wonder how much of that R950m is currently going into paying salaries of locally employed people.
I wonder how much of that R950m is currently going into paying salaries of locally employed people.
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:
Furthermore the reasoning in this article is highly specious: "SA's average software piracy rate is pegged at 36%, representing a R950m loss to the economy." The economy doesn't LOSE that money, it goes elsewhere. Those businesses who save money by pirating software now have more capital to hire more people, grow their businesses faster, and produce more products and more wealth for society. In fact the economy on the whole benefits, because those companies can now hire more people AND still get to use Autodesk software to improve their productivity. Only Autodesk loses. And although some jobs at Autodesk are lost, those jobs would not have added as much value to the economy as those jobs created by the increased capital flowing in the economy due to piracy. Another point is that Autodesk is a foreign company, so most of their profits ultimately flow OUT of the country and into the (foreign) economies of the shareholders.
Again, I'm not saying it's right, and I'm not justifying it. Just saying these guys are lying. The software industry may lose out due to piracy, but the "economy" doesn't lose anything - other sectors of the economy gain from the use of the pirated software and the increased capital.
These guys are playing with words. A "loss to the economy", by definition, is something where money is spent (or resources used up) but NO NEW VALUE is generated - e.g. repairing a broken street light that someone drove their car into.
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Celemasiko
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It has been said that Bill Gates spreads out deliberately some of his software in order to gain more advanced IT people to look it over and having bugs sorted out. In the first 3 days after the launch of WinXP 62.000 bugs have been reported....
and where was that said, and why do you call an organisation's software 'his', i'm just not sure you understand that its not like he codes this stuff himself, you know you can buy alot of smart peoples time if you're one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world
I work for a co that got a letter from these clowns. They said we been "reported" as using their software without a licence.
Best of all, we dont use their software (autodesk) at all, and the letter was addressed to someone who is not at the company and never has been.
Makes me think they taking a mailing list of all co's in the engineering / archtecture fields and sending letters as if you have been reported. What rubbish
Best of all, we dont use their software (autodesk) at all, and the letter was addressed to someone who is not at the company and never has been.
Makes me think they taking a mailing list of all co's in the engineering / archtecture fields and sending letters as if you have been reported. What rubbish
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:
Oh, and to answer your question:slimothy said:
"Fortune", 7/20/1998:
"Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software, Someday they will, though. And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
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:
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....