Paradigma 9

A discussion on pirating software from the usenet

"How can you compete with free?" (posted by ware share on Jul 21, 2002)
Pirates often say that \"I\'m not rich enough to buy M$ Office, so they aren\'t losing any money when I use a pirated copy.\"That\'s probably true. M$ isn\'t losing money. However, the author of CheapWrite, who tries to sell his software for $39, is probably losing a sale. I mean, if the choice for a user is to get a good-enough program for $39, or the biggest program for free, what choice will he make?Thus, piracy hurts small software developers but not large ones. If you want to support the M$ monopoly, by all means, keep pirating.To someone who thinks that paying $39 for software is expensive: how much did you pay for your computer? And do you really think that a computer program costing less than the entrance ticket for an amusement park is \"expensive\"? If so, please move to a communist state.Oh, I fogot, there are no more communist states. I wonder why that is?

"crackz, hackz and warez" (posted by anony mouse bloke on Sep 05, 2002)
i use cracked applications. i know that makes me a criminal. i don\'t care that much tho. if a company makes software that can be cracked, it deserves to lose the money. if it can\'t be cracked, and it does something i need to do, then - and only then - i will gather together the (usually prohibitive to the small-time/non-commercial user) funds to buy it. here in australia software prices are spectacularly prohibitive. an application that is well within the reach of a student in the US, UK or Europe is often out of the reach of their counterparts here. mostly, it\'s to do with exchange rates and comparative earning levels - the A$ is second only to the peso in buying power :) but high- street vendors also stick in a massive price-hike when they can. Furthermore, differential release schedules mean that we can be behind the rest of the world for months (and in the case of some games, we may never recieve them!) none of these are excuses for using cracked software. i don\'t have an excuse, except that i genuinely can\'t afford to buy things that i need, for which i can only blame the government and high unemployment rates. does being poor and unemployed mean i shouldn\'t have the same access to software tools as my more well-off fellows?

"Re: crackz, hackz and warez" (posted by on Oct 02, 2002)
Someone said \"does being poor and unemployed mean i should not have the same access to software tools as my more well-off fellows?\". I would like a new Ferrari but I cannot afford it. By your logic, it is ethically ok to steal one? I do not think the law would agree on that one, I think I would be in prison. I cannot afford the Ferrari, so I drive a Hyundai. If I could not afford MS Office, I would use notepad. Its not like you are stealing food to save your life here... you are talking about a luxury. Its not ok to steal an xbox from Walmart if you cannot afford one, and its not ok to steal software if you cannot afford it. Stop fooling yourself.

posted by Paradigma @ 11:26 PM