98 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
This article appeared in the May 12, 1992 issue of PC MAGAZINE, and is copied
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here without permission-as if we really cared!
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THE SOFTWARE PIRACY BLUFF
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By: John C. Dvorak
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People still copy software, and most of us who work for a living have little
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sympathy for the plight of the software vendor. After all, the software
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industry will eventually generate more millionaires than any other business
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in history. Bill Gates, with a net worth of $7 billion, is now the richest
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man in America, and his money was accumulated from scratch-zero-in 15 years
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flat. Meanwhile, the watch-dog Software Publishers Association (SPA) and the
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Business Software Alliance (BSA) claim that whatever the software industry
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sells, it loses at least 50 percent to pirates. They keep changing the number,
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but they like to say that if it's a $10-billion-a-year industry, then another
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$10 billion goes to pirates. In other words, Bill Gates should be worth twice
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as much!
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Let's examine Gates's net worth. If you made $5 million dollars a year (and
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few people do) and put it under your bed, it would take you 1,400 years to
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achieve Gates's current net worth. Here's another cute calculation: Forget
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about interest. If you lived to be 70, to achieve Bill Gates's current net
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worth you'd have to make $100 million (that's got eight 0's in it!) each year
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from the day you were born to the day you died.
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At Microsoft there are something like 100 millionaires (maybe more). It's
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easy to go on and on about this. Suffice to say that the public is not too
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thrilled with overnight millionaires (or billionaires) who are whining that
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they aren't making enough money because pirates are ripping them off. To
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expect a sympathy vote from the public is ludicrous. When you consider the
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wealth of Bill Gates, and how impossible it is to achieve such wealth, you have
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to wonder who's ripping off whom. While software serves a useful robotic
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function, does it have to cost so much? No way.
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Meanwhile, in a never-ending attempt to coerce the world into paying more
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money for software than is practical, the BSA is now attacking Germany.
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According to a news report:
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"In a submission to the US Trade Representative
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regarding allegedly inadequate copyright protection, the BSA says Germany leads
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its list of countries causing the world software industry's greatest revenue
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loss from piracy...[With] 1990 losses of $1.86 billion, the BSA recommended
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Germany be placed on the Priority Watch List by the International Intellectual
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Property Alliance (The IIPA represents the copyright industries of software,
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motion pictures, music, and books.) The BSA said next in line for concern are
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Italy and Taiwan, where it estimates total piracy losses in 1990 at $754 million
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and $753 million, respectively."
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The question on my mind is: How were these enormous figures for piracy--3.37
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billion--calculated? Out of thin air, that's how. You guess how many illegal
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copies might be made per unit sold and then mutiply that number by the total
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legitimate sales in the country.
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If copy protection were perfect, would the extra monies be realizd? Unlikely.
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The fact is that most users, instead of buying software that they earlier
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copied, would use inexpensive shareware or bargain repalcements. In fact, the
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software industry would probably be sunk if piracy were eliminated. Prices
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would fall rapidly as market share was gained by the cheap alternative until
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they dominated the software market altogether. The loss figures are as bogus
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as a $3 bill, and the software industry knows it.
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The message that needs to be sent to the software industry can only be sent
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by the users of bootleg software. Go legit and buy those inexpensive
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shareware and public-domain alternatives. The industry will stop whining about
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lost revenues from piracy when we refuse to play its game.
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Transcriber's notes:
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While Mr. Dvorak does not endorse piracy (publicly at least), This article
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points out how the general public is so misinformed about supposed piracy
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losses. He also states that users should go legit and buy shareware.
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Two problems with that. 1- A pirate never pays for his tech. 2- A pirate
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would never be caught dead using shareware or PD unless it suited his purpose.
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This article is somewhat encouragin for programmers, at least. If you make the
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alternatives, then you get the money. Personally, I think shareware and PD
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programs are about as much fun as watching what a mouse does when you set its
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hair on fire--lightly roasted tastes like chicken. I don't like PD, but it
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serves my purposes. When I do program I try to get whatever I can for my
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work, but I couldn't live with myself if I became on of those bourgeois who
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run the software industry.
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What Mr. Dvorak says has definite economic solidity. If demand for a product
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goes down because of the presence of a less expensive substitute, the price
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must also go down or it will fail. A basic economic rule.
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I brought this article to your attention not to make you stop whatever
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"pirating" you may be doing. Indeed, if we stopped pirating software, what
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would we do for fun? This is here merely for your information and
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entertainment. Even if people DID buy PD instead of normal software industry
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programs, pirates would still be needed to "spread the wealth",if you get my
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meaning.
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We're here, we ain't going nowhere, we're moving right next door to YOU!
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Piracy is here to stay.
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Sorry Mr. Dvorak. (Yeah, right!)
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