software piracy - for or against?

When the question is put like that, no-one likes to think they are bad so they will naturally be against software piracy. So my point is this:

Arent software developers thinking the wrong way?
Shouldnt they say: If I make a program and it took 300 working hours to produce I want that paid for plus a profit of - say 100% so my time is worth £30 an hour so I need £9000 for that - then I need 100 times that in profit which means I must get £900,000 for my product after which I will give it out free.

Otherwise you face this situation - which is how developers actually think
I spent 300 working hours on it and there are a potential 1 million customers
if I put it out at £30 a copy thats 30,000,000 in the bank

why dont they ever think - if I make this £10 a copy I may just treble my user base while getting what I think its worth?
so instead of 1 million customers paying £30 they have 3 million paying £10

otherwise those that cant afford £30 will just pirate it -

 

If I can get it for free, i'mma get it for free.

Why do people pirate Cd's and it's now even less than 10 bucks and album at best buy for new releases now?

But the thing with software is that, most of the expensive ones are hard to find and has some type of protection that it's hard for the regular people to steal, unless you know your stuff and you can get the crack or hacks or whateva and know how to use it. But than some people are loyal to their dealers and will go support. but for me, i rather get the stuff online since it's there and why would i pay $1000 for a software when i can just pay $50 a month for the broadband, search google or wherever on the net for that software link download if they have one. if not and if i really need it, i would buy it. haha.

 

when i build/edit a program, or create a macro, i want one thing:

my name next to it.

the best programming comes from the people who actually want to program something, not those who want to make money from it. i am totally against software piracy, but my deffinition of software piracy is probably different than most peoples.

lets take DVD's for example. you absolutely need to have a codec to play a DVD. (think libdvdcss and the like). that perticular codec costs, lets say, $40 to own and use on one computer. not only that, but you can only use this codec in a specific manner and cannot view the source code or apply the codec to another application.
OK, you just bought your favorite movie on DVD for $20 and you pop it into your laptop ready to watch. it says, 'sorry but you dont have the codec to play this.' or whatever. that sucks. wanna spend $40 just so you can watch your $20 DVD? no!
its rediculus. THAT is piracy.

software companies are pirating their customers.

(i just got called into work. g2g)

 

It depends, I'd like to think I'm against it...but when I consider my own past downloads I can no longer say I'm against it. I do like to buy whenever possible, mostly just to save me the hassle of finding whatever and downloading and burning and it just gets so bothersome. When it's something that's ridiculously expensive though I'm not averse to cheaper opportunities.

 

about downloading music and video. i dont think that it is the governments bussiness what we do with our own shit. i can download whatever i want to if it is available. essentially, music is comprised of 1's and 0's anyway. binary digits, bits, the same stuff that all of your computer data is made of. how can the government make THAT illegal?

what if i programmed my own music codec and had all of my music converted to it? is it still illegal to have that music? the binary digits would be totally different but should it be illegal to own a file that has the same name as a song.

i ALWAYS listen to my music from my computer. all of it, except when i am driving.

 

No internet piracy is wrong. And I am not saying this because I want to sound like a good person I am saying this because I am in a band and we have a record contract. when people download our music instead of buying it they are stealing it. It's just like if you go into a store and instead of buying the CD you want you just put it in your pocket and walk out. Copying things that you don't have permission to copy is just wrong. Stealing is stealing no matter how you do it. and thieves are one of the lowest forms of criminals there is. Yes I have done it in the past but I never will again andanyone who has ever had music stolen from them on the internet i apologize.

 

I am too poor to buy $300 programs, so i would have never spent the money in the first place, so if i ganked it, it really isn't a crime if in reallity i barely keep my comcast connected & still try out programs, and i don't profit from programs i gank, usually just to clean up my computer,or use satilite programs, in addition, there are bands like north mississppi all stars & yonder mtn string band that i would have never discovered & gone to their concerts if it were not for them being up for grabs on file share.

 

If you are that well known that your music is broadcasted on TV, Radio and the albums are in the store and selling at a good ammount, then you shouldnt be complaining.

Second thing is,
that alot of people like to listen to the songs first,
and then later decide to buy the CD anyway if it sounds nice.

Internat Piracy should remain possible,
like they feel it if they are loosing the small ammounts on the idiot high salary the most popular starts these days re receiving.

 

First of all, this thread is supposed to be about SOFTWARE Piracy. But I'll bite and reply to this anyways.

No it's absolutely nothing like that.
One is a crime the other is at most a civil infraction. There's a huge difference.

When people download your music no one is losing anything. Sure you might not get money from a sale, but you can't lose something you never had in the first place.

When someone shoplifts the store has one less of that item thus loosing the inventory and hence the money that it cost to purchase from the distributor.

I disagree.

Copyright infringement is not theft. No one is deprived of anything. And it is not a crime against property.

Hypocrisy , sweet.

 

i used to make music and i had a small contract under 'Jericho'. i dont care if people wanted to download my music as long as it has my artist name next to it.

back to topic. software priacy is wrong but it is not wrong on the consumers part. the real pirates are the development companies/corporations.

 

Sorry I havent replied to this thread I been busy the whole week or so.

Actually Aderall, on the score of writing your own codec, I believe that you would have to reverse engineer the code it was written for and that would infringe copyright. (I may be wrong about having to reverse engineer it).

I know what youre saying - if you can get it free it dont matter what the cost is - its either gonna make your day or cause you grief but as long as its free - why pay ?

There are plenty of examples now where bands are putting their music out free - The Arctic Monkeys being the most famous example where they absolutely refuse to sell their music in shops but are still a huge success and rich from doing things differently. Many others are following suit - the music is now there to advertise the gigs and what follows the free downloads has to be high quality performances at a price I guess. Also revenue now comes from television royalties and merchandise other than the music itself. I believe the music is sold to the media and cannot be broadcast without a fee or royalties but it can be downloaded for personal entertainment. Sound judgement I think - there are what ? 10,000 bands to choose from and the average teen wants a collection of 100 or 200 bands at £10 a album thats £2000 too much these days in the audiences opinion but advertisers need that audience to watch TV so they pay the royalties to get the bands that audiences wqant to watch. good all round economics - Of course now only the best bands survive so the competition is tougher but that can only be good for music

My own opinion is that software developers and the music industry needs to turn things around and think about what piracy is. They cant expect to get away with the rules of the old economy in a new medium that allows everyone the freedom to be a pirate. If the producers of the goods havent thought enough about the medium they sell the goods on - its their luck out. I didnt think it would take this long to get a revolutionary economy and industry seems light years behind the times in its approach to revenues - if it doesnt watch out they will collapse under the strain of piracy unless they get wise. Industry is making pirates out of people pecause their software is often shoddy and the shareware versions are too limited - so people dont want to take risks. Something has to change - industry either needs to play a straighter game - or it needs to get with the situation and have a big rethink

 

about codecs.

yeah, i guess one way would be to reverse engineer a codec but i meant to build a codec from scratch or easily make one from an open source codec. any open source converter can convert/rip/imitate the music if it is supplied with the codec. if i were to rip a cd i could use the output as input, kinda like a pipe ( | ) on a command line, and the file would be completely different from the original. its all a matter of producing the same output.

lets take Microsoft Office vs Apple Office. both can produce the same exact thing when you print, but the programming code is completely different. the Input is different but the output is the same. no copyright infringement.