From: cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Piracy of software
Keywords: Theft
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Ottawa
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 18:40:11 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.150842.568@bnr.ca> grier@bnr.ca (Brian Grier) writes:
>Copying someone's software for your personal use is WRONG! No IFs ANDs 
>or BUTs. You can justify it to yourself all you want but it is WRONG.
>Additionally it is also ILLEGAL. 

That depends on which software it is.  You're overgeneralizing here.
It is quite legal to copy GCC, Emacs (various varieties), RCS, TeX,
and many other pieces of "someone's software."

>Yes software piracy exists on all platforms. Do you think there would
>be as many MSDOS machines sold if people did not have access to a lot
>of very good and very expensive software they can steal from work. I know
>of a group of ten people that got together and bought a single update
>to WORD PERFECT for WINDOWS because where we work is not going to
>get it and they wanted it. They were very happy when we got WORD
>PERFECT and they spent a lot of time at the copy machines making copies 
>of the manual. I'm pretty sure that the copyright notice that came with 
>that upgrade specified that it was to be used on only one computer.
>
>As I have stated before, software piracy happens at about the same
>rate on all computers. The real problem is if there is not a large
>enough user base the developer will not be able to support him/herself.
>Then the problem of lack of sales, not just piracy will cause developer 
>to drop platforms as not cost effective.  However if those pirated
>copies were purchased copies things could be different.

Of course, many of those copies would never have been purchased
REGARDLESS of piracy.  There's a lot of software that will NEVER be
paid for because people would be unwilling to do so.  Since piracy is
easy, they pirate the software.  If it was hard, or they felt
principled about it they simply wouldn't have it at all.  In neither
case is there a sale involved.

It's not obvious that there would be a TREMENDOUS increase in software
sales if piracy were (somehow) eliminated.

>The only way you will get the creatans that steal software, and expect
>to get full support, to pay for that support is to install 900 numnbers.
>And guess who will be the first to complain about those 900 numbers?

The cretin pirates, of course.  BUT WHO CARES.  If they want the 900
number, they WILL have to pay for it.  It IS a useful solution to the
problem.

>Charging for support is not the answer, the answer is paying for what
>you use. Try not paying that electric or telephone bill, then tell
>those companies they should give away their product and only charge
>for support.  See how long your phone stays connected and your lights
>stay on.

Charging for support isn't the IDEAL answer - but if it can be made to
work, it'll work better than the current system.  If software
producer's CAN'T make something like this work, and can't get the
sales due to piracy, then they'll have trouble keeping the phone
connected and the lights on.  Piracy isn't about to go away.  There's
too much invested in the idea.  It's too easy.  And in the mass
market, there's too much "external support" that makes piracy easy.

The OTHER part of the "ideal" solution is to put out of business those
enterprises that support software piracy:
1) Diskette Manufacturers, and
2) Second-source Manuals.

In a world in which people did not lie, cheat, or steal, "charging for
support" would not be necessary for mass-market products.  We don't
live in that world, and thus things like the 900 number may be
necessary.

IF people can come up with ways of getting paid for their software
DESPITE software piracy, then that's the START to a solution.  The
company will at least live to see tomorrow.  Maybe piracy can't be
eliminated, but software producers can pull "end-runs" around the
piracy problem, and still make a go of it.

I don't think that piracy will be eliminated.  That's not a moral
statement - I'm not suggesting that piracy is a good thing.  I
personally think that it has been very harmful to software producers,
and also to users, to at least some extent.

At one time, I was one of those with quite a bit of pirated software.
After seeing what piracy has done particularly to the Atari 8 bit
market, I concluded that it was not acceptable practice.  Since then I
haven't purchased enormous amounts of software - I've particularly
done very little to support the computer game market. 99% of it seems
to be repetitous "drek."  And there's enough free/shareware stuff
that's good to keep me fairly happy.  But if it's commercial, I DO pay
for it.  And I've been making an attempt to pay for the shareware that
I have.  I'm not perfect - but I'm TRYING.

I sleep better at night now, with my rather smaller collection of
software that I actually happen to use.

On the utilitarian side of things, I'm not sure that my change of
actions has actually helped many of the software producers - they
didn't get much money from me before, and still don't, because I
purchase fairly frugally now.

-- 
Christopher Browne                |     PGP 2.0 key available
cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca           |===================================
University of Ottawa              |  The Personal Computer:  Colt 45
Master of System Science Program  |  of the Information Frontier