CompuServe Messages

Ron, I've never bought the argument that we all pay more for software due to software piracy. Follow me: You typical "career" pirate, and I've met quite a few, obtains his warez from several sources, usually pirate boards. He doesn't have a lot of money, and quite frequently is young, in his teens or twenties. All of his money is spent on his "neato" hardware, not the software. If all software were dongelized it would make absolutely no difference to this brand of pirate. He would either break it, his "friends" would break it, or he would not bother with the software at all. In any case, if he does get the software working on his computer, he will only use it perhaps half a dozen times, if that. In any case, the software company would never have made a sale to this individual, period. Therefore, the software company has not lost any sales and therefore no money. Now, for the other kind of pirate, the "middle-class" pirate. His typical reason for pirating software is that he is continuing to work on a particular item from the office. As such, why should this individual pay an additional fee to use the same piece of software on a different CPU? Especially if the software has a relatively high cost. It is, after all, the same work generated by the same piece of software, but in two different locations at two different times. Or at least, that is the typical rationale involved. In any case, if the software were unbreakable, this individual would almost certainly not buy the software for his home machine, but instead defer the work until his return to the office. Again, no sale would occur. The _only_ case that can be made for lost sales is to corporate customers or home-users within a particular niche, and of the latter, only if it is differentiated from their main work (primarily games). For this latter type, there can be a case made for lost sales, but I frankly don't think they amount to much, at least in relation to corporate sales. As for corporate sales, I think they need to monitor their own installations more carefully, but I believe that the legal system is slowly sorting that out. My basic point comes down to this. The supposed lost sales that are reported by many software houses should be heavily discounted. The figures cited, especially for the packages such as WP, Lotus, and such, take into account sales that never, ever, would have occured. Most of the software that I've seen pirated has been used once and related to a forgotten disk in the back of the disk drawer, never to be used again. The opposite case where a user is using a copy of the software from the office is also a sale that would almost certainly never have occured. Given the price of many software packages, the worker could never rationally justify such an expenditure for what is, essentially, unpaid work. Of course, this ignores the whole issue of game software, but this is a long enough message by itself. Brian P.S. For you software houses out there, before you flame, keep in mind I firmly oppose piracy. I am only examining the economies of such. Brian