Why I Steal Software and What it Can Teach You About Doing Business
By: Joe Duncan
Tags: Philosophy, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Businesses, Startup

Why I Steal Software and What it Can Teach You About Doing Business

The Value of Good Faith Business Practices — Even if You Don’t Own a Software Company

In the late 20th-century a shift began to cement itself into the fabric of our lives, a shift that would prove irreversible, for a time, and one which would permeate everything that we do. Where we go from here will dictate just how irreversible this trend turns out to be, supposing we choose to get ahead of the curve or to double-down on our long-outdated business models. The shift I’m talking about is the relatively new science (at the time) of psychology and it's being adopted into business and marketing practices. The study of Behavioral Economics has begun to shed some light on the bizarre phenomena observed in the form of unbounded human irrationality in everyday economic decision-making. But behavioral economics was born out of necessity and that necessity was often the problem of one-sided knowledge in exchanges, specifically with companies engaging in practices like placing impulse-buy items at checkouts and sweet, sugary breakfast cereals at approximately the eye-level of children so as to entice them to plead and nag their parents into submission. This is where the corporate world went awry; this is how much of corporate America became devoid of ethics.

When businesses could afford to, they’ve continually opted to hire teams of psychologists capable of designing such business practices in order to essentially trick the consumer into parting with hard-earned cash (predatory marketing to children, really?), not even stopping at children or the elderly, as so many scams and legal, but shady business practices which target elderly people living out their golden years have evidenced — and this is why I pirate when I sense a company is being unfair to consumers. I don’t pirate with every company but I certainly pirate the software from unethical companies. Allow me to explain…

I see it as a sort of balancing act which rectifies an unjust situation, one of one-sided knowledge (known as unconscionability, in contract law) whereby a business always has the upper-hand by way of an extremely lopsided knowledge in an economic exchange — and they often choose to use that knowledge to exploit, rather than enlighten. I have a major ethical problem with this and I think I’m not alone, here.

My latest software piracy was a painfully expensive language-learning software (I’ll let you guess which one), though there have been many, many others in the past, from video and photo editing software to other utilities that make life easier. The truth is, I do pay for most software, I have many monthly subscriptions that supplement my writing endeavors, so it’s not even the price tag that turns me off so much as the deceptive business practices. I’ll gladly put up some cash in order to help struggling podcasters and artists or even large companies which serve their customers well and are honest. When a company isn’t straightforward, however, I choose not to do business with them — even if that means pirating their products, and it’s just that simple. This isn’t about retribution but aversion.

It’s not that I want to be bad or get revenge, it’s that I don’t want to be manipulated or lied to, even if it means I have to take a little risk in order to succeed in my avoidance. It’s easier to download a pirated copy than it is to deal with salespeople and customer service reps, in many cases, and that’s telling. In just typing that, I almost feel like I speak for my entire generation, here.

If you’re an owner of a startup or intending to become one, I challenge you to ask yourself what this means to your business strategy. No matter what your business is, what might your blind-spots be that are steering people away from your business? Is it all about money, at the end of the day? When times get tough and it comes down to making money or giving your customers value on their terms, which side of this fence do you fall on? Is there anywhere for ethics and good faith interactions in business today? Are all thefts really devoid of an ethical basis? Or did I perhaps just happen to rectify a situation of one-sided knowledge to give myself the upper-hand?

In the most recent encounter, I emailed said company to let them know I’d paid for and used their old version of the software in question and asked what new updates had been made pertaining to specific areas of the software. I’d rather not pay to upgrade and receive the same product. The company was unable to answer my question. They replied that I should just buy the new version and try it out for myself, without ever explaining to me what the differences might be in terms of concrete advantages and measurable merits. This is about the same as an automobile mechanic who requires a $1,000 downpayment to even begin taking a look at your car. It’s one thing if the mechanic has already taken a look and can tell you exactly what it is they need to fix, but it’s a whole different story if they ask me to pay them for the labor without having taken a look at my vehicle. We have lemon laws at automobile dealerships for a reason and that reason is because of the lopsided knowledge and the willingness of some companies to exploit such a privilege and trick consumers into spending hard-earned cash on something that essentially delivers no value. I think you should be able to see the applicable analogy, here.

I cannot, as a consumer, emphasize enough what should be painfully obvious to everyone, and that is the unwavering importance of good faith business practices, practices like having a willingness to accept that our products or services won’t be for everyone, that (listen up mall kiosk cell phone reps) the goal isn’t just to increase your conversion but to make sure that you give your customers something of lasting value. Are you selling hope or change, because you can’t sell both — either your product and service will deliver or it won’t, but trying to pressure the consumer into buying the wrong product in order to pad the sales numbers isn’t a good habit to get into. The price of these shady practices is our integrity.

But it goes so much deeper than just this. Whenever a company becomes shy about explaining its product, often resorting to treating me like an idiot or even “negging” me, I detect this age-old business tradition of confusing the customer and then pouncing upon the consumer’s confused state in order to make a sale. Rather than selling a product or service on its merits, for decades companies have resorted to obfuscation, trickery, and deceit.

Customer service reps are told not to answer specific questions and I’m sure we’re all familiar with the game of hot potato that call-centers often employ to keep from giving us straight answers (and wasting our time, in the meanwhile). I don’t see my choice to avoid the company altogether and seek out ‘alternative’ sources as unjust, though I’m sure some legal entities might disagree with me, and it’s especially not unjust because I don’t indiscriminately get what I can where I can, that would be exploitative, putting me on their level. I just expect honest interactions and if I can’t expect honesty from a company, why be honest with them? Does bad faith not beget bad faith? If good faith cannot be provided, well, I’ll certainly help myself. I think most consumers are like me and have a sense of fairness, and, even if they can’t quite put their finger on it or do anything about it, they’ll certainly attach that intuitive sense of unfairness or maltreatment to your company’s brand and companies eventually come to be known by their performance rather than image.

We often think of scam artists as questionable-looking men on stimulants in a phone room somewhere, rarely do we stop and think that our sell-at-all-costs tactics often accomplish the exact same result. What’s the real difference between taking someone’s money through deception and taking someone’s money and giving them a bogus product in return? Interestingly enough, I used to work for the company I now find myself browsing to pirate and they’d asked me to lie directly to costumers to make a sale. Why should anyone owe them any amount of honesty? How do we really feel about companies that predate children and try to coax them out of information, up to and including the credit cards of their parents, or outright taking their information illegally?

In a world where the predators aren’t back alley nobodies but the most renowned corporate giants of the world, sometimes there’s nowhere to turn but to your own means. It says something that underground networks of online pirates are oftentimes more benevolent than our largest corporate institutions.

Online piracy is basically a legion of 21st-century Robin Hoods playing out their great game of retribution, somewhere in the great global experiment of nearly-unfettered capitalism running amok, one where many of us have gained an upper-hand to engage in shady business practices with shady businesses who would rather do us dirty and throw consumers under the bus in the name of making a buck. It’s wrong and I think it’s time we start calling it what it is, exploitation. Anyone who’s ever worked sales can testify to the fact that most managers will inevitably teach you “psychological tricks” in order to increase your numbers at the end of the day. What are those tricks if not but manipulation? I don’t have to be a business major to tell you that manipulating your customer base isn’t a good faith business practice.

Would you date someone who couldn’t answer simple questions like, “Have you ever been convicted of domestic violence or sexual assault?” Or how about someone who spent the entire date “negging” you and trying to manipulate you into sleeping with them? The answer is likely no, you wouldn’t if you value your own safety, time, and energy. Can your company or brand answer whatever questions may be the analog of these, unflinchingly? If not, perhaps it’s time for a correction. Americans spend way too much time trudging through the bullshit, artificial reality of lies the business class has created for us, and we’re very much tired of more of the same.

It’s not even the answer I’m afraid of so much as the wasting of my time in an attempt to trick me into purchasing a product that I may or may not need and the refusal to help me clarify if their product is for me or not. It might not be and that’s okay, there are plenty of others out there who might find value in it. The ruse is unnecessary and if we don’t accept it in the dating world, why should we accept it in the business world?

Too many businesses, today, are built on outdated notions of the primacy of the first sale, placing so much emphasis on appearances that there is nothing behind the mask. All of the importance is placed on getting the consumer to part with their money and there is no followthrough. As I said, not every company is like this and those are the companies I will gladly hand over my cash to, but the moment games come into the picture, I make my exit. Sometimes, our purchase decisions aren’t economic decisions but ethical ones and those are the ones we’re the most willing to stick by.

So, what are you telling your staff, or, if you don’t have any staff, what does the face of your business say about you? Companies of today want to focus so much of their time and resources on their brand and their image but do they ever stop and think about their values? And, I’m not just talking about the bogus hot-air of “company values” that they make every employee read upon their first day of hiring, but do they actually live up to those values? Are you confident enough in your service or product that you truly believe that you’ll win repeat customers? Or are you trying to make sales on empty vagueries and ambiguities which aren’t quite tangible, in hopes that this sale will propel you to the next and onto the next until you’ve exhausted the sea of people and ruined that reputation that you tried so hard to pretend? The thing is, companies are like people, they live and die by the lifeblood of their reputations — not their image — and a reputation can only be built upon the consistent actions which have forged one’s character — not facades and facsimiles of virtue. Those actions aren’t just the ones the consumer sees but the ones that are maintained behind closed doors, the conversations between every subordinate and superior, the behind-the-scenes actions that fuel the mood of the company overall. So, I challenge Ameican enterprise to ask itself, what does it want its legacy to be? What do you want to reputation to be? Build that, don’t give me another pretty brand with no substance, please.

Simply put, I owe no ethical good faith to a company the tries very hard to employ bad faith tactics in order to get me to part with my hard-earned money. It’s time we let products start selling themselves again and stop pressuring consumers into apathy or worse, misery. I’ll opt to take care of myself, thank you very much.