Although the SPA and BSA conduct relentless anti-piracy public relations campaigns, some of their member companies remain consistently more quiet than others. At the heart of this discrepancy in crime-fighting zeal lies the fact that not all software companies suffer from piracy. The rule of thumb is that the more complex the product, the more reluctant potential pirates will be to copy it. Without support and consulting services, no IS manager would even dream of depending on network management packages such as CA Unicenter or HP OpenView. I do not condone software piracy.
Companies deserve to make as much money as they can off their products.
However, a more realistic approach to software theft that acknowledges the difference between copying types would do far more to shore up the software market. Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Copyright 1998 Infowar.