9 replies to this topic

[Saint]

You've heard of copycat crimes. A crime gets a lot of publicity, and a lot of people think, "That's a good idea", and commit the same crime.

This is a (partly) true story. Names have been altered to protect the innocent guilty.

John Doe likes programmers' utilities, but he had never pirated any via MegaUpload. That was possibly because he spends his time on respectable forums, where such things are not generally discussed, so he did not know about MegaUpload.

After MegaUpload was busted with a lot of media attention, John thought what a pity it was that he had never at least had the chance to look at it, just for education to see what was happening in the online world. He then did a few Google searches out of curiosity, and found alternate sites which some users were abusing to offer free pirate downloads. He just looked at RapidShare and DepositFiles out of interest. He then saw a programmers' utility available, that he had sometimes thought about trying. He could not resist pressing the download button.

He is, of course, only trying out the software. If he does not like it, he will delete it. If he keeps on using it he will naturally purchase a legitimate copy. However, so long as the software stays on his PC unpurchased, he is technically a pirate.

And that is how John Doe became a software pirate, purely as a result of MegaUpload being busted.


(I'm sure that nobody on this forum would ever even think of committing digital piracy. However, it is quite proper that we keep ourselves educated by staying up-to-date with what other people are doing on the internet. Has anybody heard of other sites where pirate copies of programmers' utilities might be found? Just out of curiosity.)

[the_reaper]

Apart from MegaUpload and RapidShare, I don't personally know of any others. There's always P2P programs, though...eg. Limewire, Morpheus, BitTorrent, FrostWire, etc. As I know, those programs (and the underlying P2P protocol) are VERY hard to shut down (and most likely won't be).

Note: I do NOT use these programs.

[HCN-willyhsv]

LOL!
If you have a good virus protection installed, you can find almost anything you want out there. You can find more if you use torrents, but they are dangerous to your wallet, because they automatically share any bits you download using it (more sources available = more sharing concept) and then your computer has just become part of the piracy.

If you are looking to test a particular software package (pre-purchase, of course) and it is a highly used program, you should be able to find it easily. If it is some obscure software package or specialized program for a single specific task, you will be hard-pressed to find it. But now with megaS being brought down, it will be one step harder in finding stuff, but only for a short time.

I use to have a few select site that I would start with when looking for software to "evaluate" but have found that googles far-reaching snoop capabilities have become a better resource for finding sites to look at. Most of the time you will find a reference to an online storage site via forums and postings. You can also find software on the same sites that list music nowadays. But just be wary of where you go and what you download. You are responsible for what you receive, whether it be a virus or pirated software.

[loremar]

If you really don't have and will not have any money to buy it, then I think it's okay to download pirated softwares. The software companies won't lose any money from you since you don't have any money to give in the first place. Also it can be considered by the software companies as "helping the less fortunate ones".

[HCN-willyhsv]

Does that mean If I dont have any money, and wont be buying a new car, that it is ok for me to go take one from the lot, under the guise of the dealership helping the less fortunate? All because software can be copied from the original medium, does not make it a non-tangible item. The company does loose money, because if you really needed the software, you would be able to save up and eventually purchase it.

All because something CAN be done, does not mean that it SHOULD be done. I will neither condone, nor condemn the actions of software piracy. I have done my own amount of piracy in the past, and will undoubtedly do it again in the future, but I will not tell you to do as I do, I will tell you to do what you believe is right, and accept any consequences that arise from it.

[Saint]

loremar, on 08 February 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

... Also it can be considered by the software companies as "helping the less fortunate ones".

Not many software companies seem to have altruism high on their list of priorities.

However, I do remember two instances where having their software pirated did help the "victims".

At one time, word processing programs were not given away free with operating systems. WordStar was a word processor with no copy protection, and it became the most pirated piece of software in the world. Therefore many people learned on WordStar. Naturally, many corporates then standardised on WordStar, because it was easy to recruit people already familiar with the software. And the corporates played by the rules, and bought a legitimate copy for every PC.

Embedded database systems were quite expensive, and I remember one software start-up using C-Tree simply because it was the database that it could pirate for free. However, once they started selling their product to the public, it was obvious which database they had used, so they had to buy a legitimate copy.

Micro$oft learned that lesson, and gave away "Express" versions of their programmers tools. Software start-ups can develop their products using free compilers, and only need buy Micro$oft's commercial versions when their own products are ready to sell.

[loremar]

You can distinguish a world with piracy from a world without piracy. A world with piracy might have an increased human productivity and happiness overall compared to a world without piracy. Although that can be easily countered by saying lots of people have lost jobs because companies are losing tremendous amount of money. In that case, piracy is indeed a serious threat.

However, I think it all boils down to one question, "If you have enough money or able to save up money, would you buy a legitimate copy or download a pirated one?". If people can genuinely answer that question and if it be determined that people who have money are more likely to buy the software, then a world with piracy can easily be justified.

[Saint]

loremar, on 09 February 2012 - 02:40 AM, said:

... if it be determined that people who have money are more likely to buy the software, then a world with piracy can easily be justified.

I've met a lot of thieves in my time, and seen some of them go to prison. I've talked to them, and can make some rough generalisations.

One factor determining whether people commit crimes is whether they think they might get caught. People think that there is no real chance that they will get caught downloading pirate videos at home.

Another factor when people decide whether or not to commit a crime is whether they think of it as "just an unfair rule" (like lots of motoring offences, or paying taxes) or whether they think of it as "bad". Some people would never shoplift, because they can see that the owner would lose his goods, but piracy seems different because the video maker still has his goods. If you pirate a copy of a video, then the maker has just lost "his chance of a sale" which most people do not think of as really "bad". Other people would not shoplift from a small shop where the owner would suffer, but do not feel bad about stealing from a "rich" supermarket.

My feeling is that if digital piracy is easy to do, and unlikely to be detected, then 40-60% of people who could afford to buy will nonetheless pirate.

Bear in mind that lots of corporations who refuse to pirate software, only refuse because of the trouble that a disgruntled ex-employee could cause. Lots of parents only buy kids' videos because of the risk that kids might chatter about pirated videos at home.

Regretfully, I cannot agree with Loremar's thoughts that poor people would pirate, but rich people would buy. Just think of all the news items about wealthy politicians and business executives who nonetheless steal to get even richer.

[HCN-Northern]

thing is from what i see today in the gaming industry... you cant blame people downloading games to "test/play". hell i bought BF3 and it wouldnt work till the "NEXT PATCH" which screwed it up more. so i dont blame priacy at all as the companies that make faulty goods at the start (games that dont work straight away when you install) are to blame... aint ya EA GAMES!!!!

[gxjenkin]

When you look at the Licensing Terms for most software it makes you wonder just what are you paying for.

For instance I purchased a Plugin for Wordpress and loved it, but it reports back to a Licensing site to verify my copy is registered. I can't use that Plugin anymore because the Licensing site is gone.

That's just one example of Software makers attempts to combat piracy has made prospective customers a bit leery about purchasing software.