blog: pirates of the carribean

[nikos]

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/23-jan-11-softwa ... cy-map.htm
hells bells!

[Kilmatead]

I particularly enjoyed the recent news that when Avast Antivirus spent some time tracking theft/keygens/broken-licenses for their software, they discovered more than a few were being used in the Vatican itself.  If you can't convert them, you're unlikely to convert other heathens.  (They also seemed to have more than a couple using 23-year-old licenses - which says more about the lazy developers than the malefactors).  They had Russia at the top of their list of "evil countries", which struck me as more of a political thing than anything else.

Kaspersky had also done a test where the software "called home" in the case of jiggery - when the "honest" customers complained the company's response, in typical eastern nonchalance, was to say "at least it wasn't the American Government collecting the information".  :D

[lphilpot]

> but would you imagine that 13% of all xplorer² piracy comes
> from the wealthy USA?

My guess would be that piracy might have less to do with inability to pay, and more to do with unwillingness to pay. There's such a wide variety of (good) free software out there, that if one is truly unable to pay it's quite possible to find a legally free solution. I suspect x2 piracy (like others) is just from folks who want what they want but don't want to pay for it, regardless of price. And that might cross economic lines, maybe?

[RightPaddock]

would you imagine that 13% of all xplorer² piracy comes from the wealthy USA?

Absolutely, but wait it gets worse  

China has 420M 'net users (21.4% of World Users) - 13.4% of stolen x2's
USA has 240M 'net users (12.2% of World Users) - 13.2% of stolen x2's

This would seem to indicate that a USA resident is about 40% more likely to steal a copy of x2 than a resident of China.

My employer (graphics software) measures the number of illegal licences per 10,000 internet users by country.  Over the 13 years it's been collecting the numbers, Russia has topped the list 8 times, the USA 3 times and Poland & Italy once.  

RP

[Tuxman]

tracking theft/keygens/broken-licenses for their software

Piracy has nothing to do with theft. Thieves steal copies, pirates create new copies and leave the original copies untouched. That's why downloading isn't stealing.

I'm not quite sure if "piracy" is a good term either.

[fgagnon]

Contrary to your claim Tuxman, nowadays it seems that others consider unauthorized file sharing to be a form of piracy, especially if the file sharing involves copyright infringement.  

For example, see meaning 3a in ref: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy

[nikos]

tuxman: nice one
but pirates have evolved now and roam the internet waves too!

[Tuxman]

it seems that others consider unauthorized file sharing to be a form of piracy

Pirates don't copy, pirates steal. Now could you tell me how you can steal stuff from a web server?
(Ok, technically you could, sigh.)

[WimdeLange]

It is not about stealing xplorer2. You cannot steal or pirate something digital.
It is about not paying money for using a copy. That is fraud. You use something where you should pay money for. That is economical theft?

[Tuxman]

No, it is not fraud either. Nikos does not actually lose money with that. You could say "every pirated copy is one license less". This would imply that everyone who "pirates" a software copy would also be willing to pay for it which is simply untrue.

[BugHunter]

This would imply that everyone who "pirates" a software copy would also be willing to pay for it which is simply untrue.

Indeed, and this have been scientifically proven too. ( Take that nikos, only way to fight science is to do as religios people and plainly ignore the facts which is just childish, immature and but mostly plain pigheaded http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=c ... =pigheaded)
That companies think pirates would pay if they had no choice is just another example of companies being "full of it" ( i'm using very kind words here, keeping it family safe  :roll:  )

nikos:
It saddens me that you have gotten hung up on the wrong problem as so many other (stupid?) developers, what you and the other devs have is called tunnel vision. ( which is in most cases very bad, google it )
So please stop now drinking the kool-aid and begin concentrating one the customers that actually bought your program.

Ask yourself this: Did your customers pay you to hunt down "pirates", no!
They gave you their hard earned money because they like your software and want to help you help them. By helping them, i mean by fixing bugs, adding features and improving the software.

And to say that pirates steal is only correct when we talk about pirates, you know those with swords, ships and guns ( see "Pirates of the Caribbean" for good example of pirates )

Please look up the words in a lexicon BEFORE you start using it.
I just hate when people are lazy and use the words in the wrong context. It's just a plain slap in your your language teacher's face (english teacher, in this case).  :evil:

Here's something fun and informative for you nikos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU7axyrHWDQ

[nikos]

well, what can i say to that? perhaps you will allow me to do other things with my life than just tending to customers?

and more to the point, if you think that policing doesn't make a difference, try convincing your government to cancel the police and see how your country will turn into greece in no time!

[Tuxman]

*shiver*, Greece ...

( see "Pirates of the Caribbean" for good example of pirates )

A good example of what pirates are meant to be in order to sell more copies of romantic semi-comedian movies with Johnny Depp in them.

[snemarch]

I bet tuxman is the kind of guy who insists on using KiB, MiB etc. instead of kb and mb. Yes, there's some validity to the arguments, but it's just too much arguing for the sake of arguing.

And no, not everybody who pirates would be willing to pay for the software - probably most of them wouldn't. But claiming that unlicensed copying (PIRATING!1!! one one) doesn't cause a loss of income is just plain childishly silly.

[Tuxman]

I bet tuxman is the kind of guy who insists on using KiB, MiB etc. instead of kb and mb.

Depends on the context. While "KB/s" and "Kbit/s" make perfect sense, "KB" or "MB" most likely don't while talking about IT.

Yes, there's some validity to the arguments, but it's just too much arguing for the sake of arguing.

Not really.

claiming that unlicensed copying (PIRATING!1!! one one) doesn't cause a loss of income is just plain childishly silly.

Claiming that a statistically proven point is childishly silly is childishly silly.