How does your Country rate in the Software Piracy stakes?
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Hi Guys,
Over the holidays I got into a conversation with some friends about piracy and was surprised at some of their attitudes. Its seems that they like to be selective what it comes to piracy. For example, big time popular songs / music and movies are thought to be fair game as the producers / artists are deemed to be too rich already. There was more sympathy for small time operators. It was much the same for software developers.
This image gives an idea, accurate or not, as to the degree of software piracy around the world.
I was quite surprised with the indicated rate is some so called 'Western Countries'! Top of the list is Armenia with 93%, meaning that on average only seven in a hundred applications are not stolen! The USA fairs best with 'just' 20 in every hundred applications stolen.What are your thoughts on this?
Mike
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Hi,
I think it nicely coresponds to buying power (if you turn it upside down).
One copy of windows 98 entered India and whole India used that one copy, because its to expensive for people in India and nobody would buy it. You may wonder why microsoft didnt do anything about that. And what could be than If they tried to punish piracy in india nobody would use it and that would create really big demand for new operating system and I belive week after banning windows from india a new operating system would be developed and it would be free or really chep that it would destroy microsoft. So that is why is rummored that adobe, autodesk and microsoft produce cracked versions themself, because of that very reason. They are just affraid of commpetion from "third world countries" And actually I think addobe tried to turn it into an advantage an develops its products in india.and about the artist they actually benefit from piracy, because its really great marketing. And real artist income comes from concerts. Onlyone who benefits from selling cd's is recording company.
I dont know if my story about windows 98 and india is true I read it somwhere on the internet, but I think is not important it pretty ilustrates how software markets works.And I want to say how this can relate with trimble. I think a heard somewhere an interview with Steve Jobs about this and He sad that in 21 century selling software or hardware is not enough, You have to sell solutions. And i thik trimble hit bingo with SU, because it can't probably make many on sketch up, but I am certain that it will make trimble products more usable and help sell them more.
hope this make sense. sry for my english
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Hey Mike, good old Canada slipped under Ireland by 1%.
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An interesting slant on things DOD3R. You could well be right as it makes a certain amount of sense.
Dale, not much between Canada and Ireland except that there are more of you guys so more pirate software
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I am not surprised China is not far up on the list. I think it is partially a cultural issue. Years ago, we had an intern from China; she couldn't understand why we would pay money for software "when you could just download it from the internet." The concept of intellectual property rights seemed foreign to her. But then, so was the concept of a Tibet ("There is no Tibet! It's China!" note: emphasis was hers).
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Yes Daniel, I agree with a lot of what you say. Pirates seem to fall into a few groups from what I can see. There are the pirates that know what they are doing is wrong and stay stum. Then there are others that really do not understand that what they are doing is wrong, like the young lady you mention.
I think things might change a little if the smaller companies at least put some faces behind their software. I think if intending pirates actually saw the developers they might have second thoughts.
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@mike lucey said:
I think things might change a little if the smaller companies at least put some faces behind their software. I think if intending pirates actually saw the developers they might have second thoughts.
Wishful thinking Mike! 
Piracy is brutal. Do you think this Chinese girl would bother to think who is behind a software company? A program is just a folder with files for her. -
Hi Tomaz, maybe I am thinking wishfully but I will continue to do so. I do honestly believe that folks tend to be more responsible when they are more informed. They again, folks have to believe that are being treated fairly. The operative word is most definitely 'fair', a very small word but so important in so many things in life. -
Interesting topic on a never ending phenomenon
I had this discussion also a lot with friends, collegues and businness partners.
My opinion is that it has relatively little to do with the country, type or value of software in a direct manner.
It all has to do with making rules + 'controlling'/enforcing those rules in combination with the 'normal' workings of a human mind.
Let me explain:
THere are laws for stealing. Law enforcement secures these laws and that it is being followed by everyone subjected to those laws.But, the lawenforcement on software piracy is lacking, better said, not executed actively and/or properly at all.
THIS is the indirect 'root' of all piracy!!
How may cars would be bought, if the keys could be found on nearly every corner, no alarms are going off while taking the car from it's rightfull owner and no cop was searching for you?? I bet it would near that 98% of Armania, even in our welthy countriesTHIS is what's happening in the software market: keys are found everywhere AND there is no proper warning system to the owner AND there is no law enforcement actively pursuing these 'criminals'.
So, the only 2 things that makes us pay the proper price for digital productsis necessity or principal.
Since the whole world with exeption of the 3rd world countries lives in the current informetian era (Internet), the necessity-problem (i.e. can't find another location then the official retailer, don't have the financial meand to buy it, etc.) is brought to a minimum.
This means the principal is what mainly makes us buy the software!
I strongly believe that people have the inert drive to search/go for the most simple solutin to a problem. In this case, this means we 'all' would 'steal' (solution) to get a desired (problem) product if there wasn't any penalty what so ever
There is another factor being born the last decade wich increases the rate/amount of piracy: Up bringing.
The teenagers/young folk of these times don't realy know better than that digital products are found on the internet and that the rewards are the best for the 'searcher'.
This means that it is seen by them as normal behaviour, therefore the principal part is totaly erased from the equasion, wich leaves necessity as the soul one...I see this with my cousings from 8-16, but I have to admit I notice this in myself to
I'm 30 and was a teen when the Internet started booming, but I also know how those (beautifull) days were when we went hours to the mall to listen all possible cd's at your favorite record shop and maybe buy one per month, cause money was hard to come by.
I encouter a dubbel personality in me when discussing/thinking about fierce law enforcement on downloading copyrighted products: I know there are people putting in an effort in making them products and should be payed, but I resent the thought that I would have to pay for all those things I have downloaded for free through my entire live or being IP-blocked as a sentence...I will be the first to admit: This is so biased and wrong!! But, why do I think this way?? This way was thé way for the bigger part of my life, so it's almost excepted as normal in my believes.
This fact is the most concerning one imho: If law enforcement AND proper education in this subject isn't implemented quickly (let's say 1 decade) and correctly, I think 'The Industry' is a sinking ship with it's conventional product payment and distribution setup!
Jm2€
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Food for thought there Ronald, thanks.
In the case of the stolen car analogy. I wonder if the issue of not having car insurance would have a bearing? I think most would weigh the pros and cons and decide that its best to not have / use a stolen car as a accident could risk all ones possessions! Then again if one was in jail this might not be such a huge issue
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I do wonder how much law enforcement affects those percentages; do those countries with high piracy rates have lax enforcement, or perhaps difficult for companies to sue? i know here in the U.S., not too long ago, there were very well publicized prosecutions of people for downloading music from share sights, and they were sued for HUGE amounts. So, in this country at least, people know if you are caught pirating software, songs, movies, etc. you can end up paying big for it.
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Exactly what I mean: people get sued (law enforcement) which warns other people. Do this enough times, and it will affect the piracy percentage imo.
Don't do this and there is no 'reasons' for them to stop doing itAs for the countries with high percentages: there ain't no law enforcement in those countries what so ever. I.e. I know Croatia very well and there is no enforcement on digital theft.
In these countries they all have Internet but nearly anybody has the money to spend on software. I think this results in enormous piracy percentages.Another thing: it is very complicated, as I understand, for copyright holders from country A to sue people in country B. I know this is an issue in Holland.
And because the largest numbers of copyright holders is from American soil, the amount of persecuted people for piracy is (way?) higher then any other country. -
But some of the sums that were sued on individuals border on human rights. Maybe that indicates that it is harder to track abuse on digital goods vs. real goods, and thus a punishment reflects rather deterrence than the damage caused by the individual. Probably the developers/creators who suffer most from stealing are not the big ones who sue often.
I think the root of the issue is neither that people can't afford software nor that they don't want to pay such a price at which software is offered; it is a lack of honesty.
It is not as if there were no alternatives to do the same work with peace of conscience. But by sticking with the same software whose terms they do not agree with, they don't feel a problem in taking from others without giving back.
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[sup:231hy1cs][/sup:231hy1cs]_________________________________________________________________________
**%(#000080)[
knowledge is not owned; it is shared]**
from Dovid Krafchow . http://www.jewishbohemian.com/
That is the thing , that is the trouble ,
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I always wonder how those who pirate would feel about not getting any reimbursement for the work they do.
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@juanv.soler said:
[sup:1x5ksn3n][/sup:1x5ksn3n]_________________________________________________________________________
**%(#000080)[
knowledge is not owned; it is shared]**
**from Dovid Krafchow . http://www.jewishbohemian.com/
**That is the thing , that is the trouble ,
Yeah, the software developer 'shares' the application and in return the users 'shares' some cash
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i wonder what the stats are for amount of pirated software vs. amount of pirated software that's actually being used..
as in.. say a billion people have photoshop.. a million of them actually use it.. what percent of people that actually use it have a pirated version.. (i guess the # is still high but probably not as high as the chart in this thread)
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@mike lucey said:
Yeah, the software developer 'shares' the application and in return the users 'shares' some cash
fwiw, that's a micro example of how money stifles progression.. if it was in fact all shared, (and by all, i mean all technology amongst other things.. i.e.- pretty much everything
).. we'd be much further along..i know we live in a monetized world and i know people need to be protected (and protect their property) in such a world but, it is holding us back as a species..
[[and i guess that's another topic entirely.. but i'm definitely not trying to say -- we'd be better off without money so just steal everything.. ]]
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I wonder, how much users pay via donations to the open source development.
This is the question that matters IMO.
All other evidences are strongly questionable. Sorry. -
@michaliszissiou said:
I wonder, how much users pay via donations to the open source development.
This is the question that matters IMO.
All other evidences are strongly questionable. Sorry.how much what? money? there is no money
(if your response was aimed at my last post)
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