the warez bust

[CTho9305]

read some info here. Am I the only one who doubts that pirates cost $1 billion per year in lost sales? I know that, for example... I didn't buy CDs before MP3s became popular. I bought VERY little software.

Lets take 3d studio max, for example. I personally cannot afford it. I would not buy it. I wouldn't buy any 3d rendering software - I used pov-ray (free) and a free modeller. If I had to pay for windows (I unfortunately did anyway through stupid OEMs, but thats a whole other rant for itself ) I would be running a free OS.

Anyway, I'm just skeptical of the figures... in order to be causing $1 billion in lost sales, people must be willing to spend that one billion per year if not for the ease of pirating. (by the way, assuming 250 million people in the US - its actually more now, that works out to $4 per person/year. not necessarily what I would call a lot... )

<disclaimer>i'm tired. if this is stupid or doesn't make sense - thats why </disclaimer>

edit: oops. tiredness showing. they claim $12 billion. So make that $36 per person per year. Not even one copy of WinXP... or for that matter one modern game! People probably still steal more napkins from restaurants.

edit2: more thoughts. I'm all for customer-based pricing... like, if I like software, I can give as much or little as I want. It would be an interesting business model, and I think it could work if paying were easy enough. Like, for windows vs. linux, I'd say I get about $50 worth of functionality (including the rest of the family). 3d studio max is a really really really cool toy. way cooler than any console i've played with lately! $75-$100 maybe. Now, since it costs a few grand I don't have, the company gets $0. Of course, for "professional" use, I would not be against higher costs since they get even more value.

a note: I dont' think i'd actually pay $75 for 3dsmax... after really considering it, I would pay $20. (not meant to be insulting... its great software. just a combination of my budget and my value-added).

 

[tallest1]

I believe it. You wouldn't believe how much piracy goes on overseas. I'd explain myself further but.... I got Grandia2 and Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast! Yay!

 

[gopunk]

i don't believe it at all. i think they need to get some better economists working for them.

in order for them to be losing that money, the people who are pirating have to people that would have bought the software, had pirating not been available. and frankly, for things like photoshop and 3d studio max, the people that could afford it in the first place are probably not the ones that are pirating it now.

i know that i don't use any illegally gotten software that i would have bought under normal circumstances.

 

[Presence]

Well to give you an idea how big software pirating is overseas.....currently Im statiopned in kosovo and went off the base for a tour...right out the gates I see music cd's for like 2 bucks. And software from windows Xp all the way to the most popular games for like 3 or 4 dollars a piece...

kinda sick..

 

[gopunk]

piracy may go on overseas, but have you seen how poor they are? like in china? they wouldn't be able to afford winxp...

 

[CTho9305]

<< piracy may go on overseas, but have you seen how poor they are? like in china? they wouldn't be able to afford winxp... >>



what makes you think its only overseas they can't afford it? been in college?

 

[AdamDuritz99]

I think that's how much they are losing if everyone who pirated the software actually paid for it, but most people would just not use it if they had to pay for it. i mean just look at photoshop. But that's just a prime example. People who couldn't afford half of MS's stuff would just use something that is cheaper or free. Another example. CuteFTP, how many people actually bought that here? If people couldn't pirate it they would probably use some other ftp client like ws_ftp. So i think the numbers they give us is just BS. IMHO

peace
sean

 

[Amused]

Some 42% of homes have Internet access (2000 figures). (I doubt people without net access steal software, and are a negligible number) Which means that 42% of heads of households buy (or steal) software.

So we're talking a loose estimate of 30 or so million that are responsible for buying, or stealing sofware, since the remainder is either children too young, people who don't have computers, or other members of households who aren't responsible for the buying of computers or software.

That's a total of about $400 per person, or household with a computer.

 

[VRoOMdesigns]

heh, took me a while to find this thread.. i thought there would be more hoopla on AT about it.. but i guess this is a computer hardware forum.

another link : abcnews.com

 

[VRoOMdesigns]

actually the real thread is here: link here

 

[yoda291]

overseas? What overseas? Goto the staples in Union Square and you can find guys with pirated discs peddling every distro of linux, all variations of windows, mac os 9-10.1, as many apps as you care to name, and games for 30 bux a disc. Figures they'd charge more. It is america.

I wouldn't buy warez on the street tho. Not because of anything moral, but because How do I know that he just didn't put in 300MB of garbage data on the disc for the burn marks? WHat am I gonna do? Call the BBB?

 

[XMan]

Don't you think the prices would be lower if no pirating was going on?

I remember when software was dirt cheap and non-copy protected. Simply put, we screwed up a good thing, and now we have to pay for it - literally. I'll even go so far as to say that software piracy probably put Amiga/Commodore out of business.

 

[gopunk]

paying 30 bucks for warez??? damn some people must be stupid.

 

[yoda291]

<< paying 30 bucks for warez??? damn some people must be stupid. >>



well considering they're outside the BIG staples, I don't imagine they cater to those who already pirate software.

 

[OUdejavu]

maybe if would employ the people who crack software things would be better, bc apparently they are more talented than the people who protect it

plus these studies dont incorporate how much new business piracy generates, just think of mp3 players

 

[ItsStillUS]

I think there isn't much hoopla because everybody's sad that warez might be harder to come by. Or just worried they might get caught themselves.

 

[Britboy]

Here's another story on it. That detective is deluded if he thinks his team is as sucessful as he makes out, its like arresting a few drug dealers and claiming you have the drug problem under control. I also like the picture caption 'Software and music piracy is now a global problem' - Er, I think it's been a global problem for several years

BBC News Story
BBC News Story

 

[AndrewR]

Damn, DOD is a good group...

 

[drewshin]

if the average person pirates $400 worth of software, that's $400 that's being spent elsewhere on more productive things for the economy...like clothes or furniture, electronics.

 

[triska]

good point drewshin
damn, warez is so risky tho...
well imo
i dunon, i wouldnt evr wnt to be scanned and found to have that
that would stink

 

[Amused]

<< if the average person pirates $400 worth of software, that's $400 that's being spent elsewhere on more productive things for the economy...like clothes or furniture, electronics. >>



No, it costs an average $400 per user to take up the slack for software pirates. Companies simply pass the cost of theft on to consumers. if other companies have to pay more for their software, they simply add that cost into the cost of their goods as well. Either way, WE (the honest folks) pay for it.

 

[Odoacer]

I do think pirating is wrong. Especially for things like games, OSes, etc. But for things like 3Ds MAX and other really expensive applications, i don't take such a harsh stance. Because I wouldn't have bought it anyway in the first place... so discreet isnt losing any money. I only download (very few) things that I wouldn't have bought anyway, whether cuz of the price tag or general lack of value.

Games are only 50 bucks. If you want to see a Diablo 3 or starcraft 2, then go out and buy the game. It's for a good cause - if everybody d/ls the game then the development studio would go out of business and there would be no more games.

I dont believe in pirating OS'es because that is something that you need, so you should at least pay for it. Or get a Dell or something, its included in the package. If you dont wanna pay for an os, get Linux or something.

Music is kind of a mixed bag. But during Napster's peak, music sales were actually UP. So there's a lot that could be said about that.

just my 2 cents

 

[pulse8]

<< No, it costs the average user $400 to take up the slack for software pirates. Companies simply pass the cost of theft on to consumers. >>



Some how I doubt that if Photoshop weren't pirated that it would only cost around $50 to buy.

 

[bigbootydaddy]

yeah...would that mean like diablo 2 would be 15 if people didnt pirate it??

lets not even mention companies like EA who should be kicked off the planet for their coding efforts.

i buy my games. I am not going to buy crap tho.

booty

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

People should read reviews and play the demos - and if you like it, buy the damn game.