On May 15, 8:59 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> No change in global piracy rates
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | According to figures released by the Business Software Alliance 35%
> | of the programs used by firms is illegal- a figure unchanged since 2003.
IIRC, these figures include unregistered shareware, which constitutes
nearly 80% of
the illegal software. Most common were utilities like WinZip, Norton
Antivirus,
shareware games, and multimedia software. In many cases, the software
can still be
used, it just reminds you that you haven't registered yet, and that
you need to do so.
Other piracy included employees using corporate images to install into
personal desktops or laptops.
Often, the Employee's rational is that having MS-Office at home makes
it possible to work after
he's put the kids to bed. The unpaid overtime counterbalances the
expense. In most cases,
the corporate licenses cover enough licenses for every employee,
including those who do not
use PCs as part of their job. The problem for the CIO is that audits
take time, and until all of the
issues are sorted out, the BSA has the legal muscle to get an
injunction to prevent using any
of the copyrighted software untill all issues have been sorted out.
Most of those who fail the
high level audit simply pay the extortion money, because the cost of
no PCs for 2-3 months
would be far greater than the settlement they can negotiate with BSA.
Ironically, most of the money collected in these settlements goes to
Micrososft, usually for CALS,
and unreported copies of Windows, MS-Office, Visio, and Project.
> | [...]
> |
> | In only three years, she said, piracy rates in China had declined from 92%
> | to 82%.
> `----
Most of China has been adopting Linux. The piracy is most prevalant
in "westernized" cities like Hong Kong,
and Singapore. Even though the population isn't as great as other
areas, the dollar value of the pirated goods,
often calculated at full western value, eclipses the value of "Legal"
OSS software and low cost legal software.
Let's say there are 3 million pirated copies of MS-Office, with an
MSRP of $600. The legal copies of Windows in
Bejing or Peking would be about 75 cents, and OpenOffice would be even
less (free?). You could have
10 million pirated copies of StarOffice or Windows in Bejing and still
only have 12 million dollars. The 3 million
Office licenses in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore would be nearly
1.2 billion dollars. Ergo, 92%.
Part of the reason that piracy rates are down, is because the value of
the LEGAL software has been going up. This is especially true where
the use of Linux and OpenOffice has been increasing so significantly.
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6654033.stm
>
> Let us hope that this Microsoft proxy cracks down on piracy really, really
> hard. One wonders if the figures from China simply indicate the move to Free
> software.
> Related:
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