Survey Reveals That More Than Half of PC Users are Pirates

[Guest]

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has found that 57 percent of the world's PC users freely admit that they are stealing software. Well, sort of.

Survey Reveals That More Than Half of PC Users are Pirates : Read more

 

[amdfangirl]

Depends what you call piracy. AFACT knocked on my door because I used p2p to "pirate" Linux and other free software causing "millions of dollars worth of IP damage".

 

[Guest]

china is a developing country??

 

[A Bad Day]

I pity those who still think that they can stop the pirating of software...

 

[posteris]

i imagine someone making 10$ a month, buying licensed software, not to mention hardware price

 

[pmerritt]

it's really too bad that so many are stealing because this is a major reason why PC gaming has declined.

 

[phishy714]

YYYAAAARRR!

 

[joytech22]

I admit I do pirate, but if I like the content I will pay for it and if I don't, I will delete it.

I used to pirate big time without even paying for content I liked, but I thought to myself it's just more sensible to pay for content I like.
All software and movies I have are purchased in either hard copy or some digital form from legitimate sites. (Like iTunes etc..)

 

[ohim]

And yet software companies and record houses bathe in millions of dollars ... that`s to show how overprice they sell their stuff.

 

[jdamon113]

Yet all these software companies cant wait to give China , India all the jobs. Why would they change they are rewarded for there actions.

 

[psychobob]

With such a high piracy rate, it's hard to imagine how the software industry can thrive at all and make billions. Perhaps the Business Software Alliance just needs justify to its funding and existence with dubious surveys.

 

[icepick314]

isn't that kinda given as a PC user?

if I like the game or the software, I'll pay for it eventhough there are free "options"...

it's not as if EVERY "pirated" software is actually lost sale...

not to mention not EVERY software is available globally due to artificial regional borders and lockdowns...

stop blaming the "pirates"...if you make it easier and better than hassle of locating torrent or finding cracks or serial keys along with possible virus/worm hacked files, then people WILL buy your software...

 

[mobrocket]

[citation][nom]cudencuden[/nom]china is a developing country??[/citation]

if they are considered developing, what are we in the US

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I think the actual rate is higher. I just don't think people realize that downloading an mp3 based on a youtube video that was put there without authorization is thieft according to ria etc.

I don't think I know a single person who doesn't have pirated software of some kind. And I think Denmark's part of the developed world.

 

[olaf]

The aggregate value of pirated software that was in use in 2011 is estimated at $63.4 billion, up from $58.8 billion in 2010.

this just goes to show that software prices are just going up. Kinda hard to expect someone to pay 60eu's out of a 200-250eu salary, having to pay over 150 just for food and other expenses(like power/heat/water and so on).

 

[amoralman]

Arrr!

I don't know what they're talking about...

 

[EDVINASM]

Well I don't know what to say. Paying €100 for Windows 64bit plus anything else on top is a bit too much. I could happily pay €50 for Win7Pro 64bit. Recently I have decided to purchase Adobe CS6 suite. €350 for students. Fair enough.. Then, hardware requirements for Quadro etc. Fek it.. I am running trial!

 

[v3nom777]

This is all Propaganda.

 

[teodoreh]

Key word: Admitting .

 

[songemu]

This is hardly ingenuous. 1 person pirating Adobe software is like 150 Somalians pirating... i don't know... Boat-Building for Pirates/Dummies

 

[olaf]

[citation][nom]songemu[/nom]This is hardly ingenuous. 1 person pirating Adobe software is like 150 Somalians pirating... i don't know... Boat-Building for Pirates/Dummies[/citation]

lol nice one had to bump it

 

[davemaster84]

I come from a country in develop. One of the strongest reasons we've piracy here is because software like games or big applications - OS come highly overpriced; while you pay around 40 to 50US for a game you'd have to pay around 80 - 90US here do to taxes. Who wouldn't get a sword and a bottle of rum that way?

 

[Maxor127]

I feel like a writing a long rant, but I actually shortened it, believe it or not. The piracy claims are BS. Piracy was even worse decades ago and a whole lucrative industry spawned from it. And people define piracy as different things and treat every file as lost income as if it weren't for piracy, they'd somehow be getting back all of that "lost revenue." The way I look at it, most people pirate because of 4 reasons: 1) the software is out of print (abandonware), 2) they can't afford it so they wouldn't have bought it anyways, 3) the value of the software was $0 to them, and they pirated out of curiosity, 4) they already own it and for whatever reason either out of convenience or necessity, they pirated a copy. Since software piracy is usually the duplication of digital materials, then there really isn't any property stolen. DRM just forces people to pirate out of spite. It's not right that if I live in a household and I buy a game, it gets tied to an account and everyone in that household will either need to play on my account or buy their own copies. I shouldn't have to shell out the price of a full game just to basically get a second license.

These companies all think short-term too. They don't consider that someone pirating something out of curiosity could lead them shelling out real money. Instead, they try to fleece you every way they can. In the case of the RIAA, they want you to buy a CD, but try to say that it's piracy and illegal if you rip MP3s from that CD. They even say it's illegal to make your own ringtone. So by their definition, you need to download the song three times.

Another example of what would be considered piracy is say I buy a DVD that has audio problems. The company knows there are audio problems but refuse to fix it or release a fixed version. A fan decides to correct the audio themselves and distribute it on a torrent. So if I were to download that file, it would be considered a copyright violation and I'd be committing piracy. I could go on and on with examples.

Piracy is a gray area, and anyone who tries to make it black and white is a self-righteous moron.

 

[pdxalex]

Second survey reveals members of the Business Software Alliance are a bunch of douchebags.

And no, I don't condone piracy.

 

[lasaldude]

This just in, Water is WET!!