Hi, your post came up on the random "recent entries" list and I thought I'd respond. I hope that's ok.

First, it's hard not to take this as a troll, since you've misspelled "illiterate". Kind of funny in either case. But ok, the idea that people with money would pay more for something so that others could get it for free... Well, it has some problems. There is a lot of community supported software out there and FOSS is huge, but I can't see how cutting edge software could follow that model. I think there will always be ways to get around paying (the ways you mentioned plus hacks of any medium developed in the future), but it I don't think that will ever be the model embraced by business, so it will never be mainstream. Just food for thought.

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>But ok, the idea that people with money would pay more for something so that others could get it for free... Well, it has some problems.

This is already happening, how is it a problem? People with a lot of money are more likely and willing to buy games from a store than download warez. Of course there are exceptions, but in general that's the case.

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Yes, misspelling something must mean it's a trolling attempt.
If you had bothered to look at his user info you'd have noticed he was Dutch.

On another note there was a topic about this on Beta a while ago with some interesting views and links http://www.b3ta.com/board/9557682 and the BBC did some research into it and found that people who pirate shit are 10 times more likely to buy it anyway.

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You make too many assumptions. I did look at the users profile. I also read their prior posts, where the spelling was fine. Misspelling another word would have been less of a tell, but to misspell the word that means 'unable to read or write' is a different matter, especially in a post that claims a miraculously simple resolution to a complex problem.

As to your data, I'll grant you that the demographic you refer to are more likely to pay for something they pirate, if they like it, but that's not the crux of the matter. We're talking about programmers/businesses allowing everyone to download their product freely and then deciding whether and how much to pay. The set of people in the scenario you mention is a subset of 'everyone'. This is very much like the shareware model. It works for some. I've already indicated that we are not talking about just some. Shareware has also failed in many places where regular sales succeed. It is not a universal solution.

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>We're talking about programmers/businesses allowing everyone to download their product freely and then deciding whether and how much to pay.

We're not actually, I wrote my post about not prosecuting the scene for distributing and using warez. Not about businesses giving their software away for free on their own official site. There's a difference.

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My apologies then. That is a different matter.

Do you propose to decriminalize it or simply not prosecute under normal circumstances?

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Decriminalize, however the selling of warez should remain illegal.

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Yes, the RIAA has left a bad taste in people's mouths about corporations suing their own customer base.

What about publishing exploits that make copying or decrypting software possible? (for the record, I don't think publishing a method to access software should be illegal because it criminalizes knowledge.)

And next, what about distribution? If a company finds a site that is giving away cracked copies of it's software for free, does that company have the right to stop them?

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I totally agree on the reason you give publishing exploits should remain legal. It would be the same as banning a book about lockpicking.

About the distribution part, how would you say the company would stop them? They can't when it's legal to distribute warez for free.

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I'm making assumptions and you've missed the point of the OP completely? What.

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I'm trying to approach the strong and week points of the free/paid software model, and now I'm aware it's more a decriminalization issue. I hope I'm bringing up good points for discussion. Your reply shows you are only interested in attacking, not discussing, so good bye.

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Attacking? I was pointing out not long after Linaaa that you had misread or mistaken the meaning of the OP.

I've said a total of 3 sentences to you, none of which are offensive or criticizing and have already discussed and posted links in response to the OP.

It sounds to me like you're getting far too defensive over nothing.

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Why encourage increased piracy? It's commonplace without a doubt, but making it even more accessible along with making it legal will just exacerbate the problem. Presumably people already do what you're saying anyway.

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They shouldn't sue people for making/uploading/downloading warez. Software companies can still copyprotect their software, and people who SELL warez should be prosecuted.

I stated people are already doing it, it's just not legal. That's ridiculous because it's a waste of time and money to prosecute & a huge impact on some of the people that DO get prosecuted, for what?? It's not like it's ever gonna make the warez scene disappear.

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Wasn't there a band who put their new album online for free, leaving it to the fans to decide how much they wanted to pay for it? Didn't it fail horribly? o:

While I agree the current hunt for zomgpiracy is out of control - especially with those 3474 different associations suing people like mad, it should be a task for the government if anything - I don't think voluntary donations are the answer.

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Bands shouldn't put their album up for free, people can download albums for free via the warez scene. If people think it's worth it and/or want an official original copy they can buy it. I'm basically saying to leave everything as it is, just don't prosecute people for distributing warez.

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Ah, then we're on the same page.^^ I use MP3 downloads to see if a new album is any good, and if it is, I go out and buy the original. Those associations should stop considering every downloaded MP3 as missed income. It's more like in the old days, when you used to listen to new albums in the record store with icky headphones, they didn't charge you for that either.

The good part about our country is that it's not illegal to download music and movies here. ;) It's only illegal to multiply and distribute it.

Software is something else. I only buy the original if:
1) the free/cracked version is a pain in the ass to use
2) the price is decent (not more than 50 euro)

/dance

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Saosin did that a few years ago and told everyone to go download it than buy it because they wanted everyone to enjoy the music than pay for it.

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Dream theater got their latest lp leaked intentionally and that totally didn't hurt them :P
Who was going to buy CD did it regardless (liek me), so yeah, i agree with you!

And software house should stop selling their OSes and progs at such high prices.... i'd buy all my windows and photoshop but fuck them D:

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Yeah Windows prices are fucking retarded. If they're gonna ask 300-400 euro for Vista Ultimate, of course I'll put SLIC info in my BIOS and download it for free. If it was 50-75 euro I would've bought it.

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Maya, Photoshop and 3D Studio Max costs around €8000 altogether. I use them all for animation projects.

lolwut.

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My view is that piracy isn't theft, it's piracy.

I've got a nice collection of bought dvd's, games & movies, and also a nice collection of pirated stuff. But going through my downloaded things, it's pretty much mostly (i) TV shows & etc that I don't want to wait 6 months before they air in my area, and (ii) Mediocre & Crappy shows/games/whatever that I wouldn't have paid money for anyway.

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That's more or less my take on it. The pirated stuff I've had in the past were generally things that were either unavailable in my area (foreign shows, etc) or things that I would not have spent money on.

There're a few exceptions to that... some movies I saw that way prompted me and my friends to go watch it in the theaters again, simply because it was a much better experience on a theater screen and because it was done well enough that I wanted to support them. Admittedly it doesn't happen very often, but then again most of the movies being put out recently have been rather crappy.

Warez wise, there's always the subtle threat of malware being bundled with whatever it is that you're downloading, so I'd usually prefer not to use pirated versions.

But some of the prices for legit software is rather absurd. Windows is one glaring example of how absurd it is. The latest full versions of windows usually runs $400+ USD... about $200 for MS Office and whatever amounts for other programs that people may need. If you tally it up, you might as well get a new pre-built computer that comes preloaded with that stuff (and a bunch of other bloatware that you can uninstall later.)

Thankfully, there's a good deal of open source software available now :p Since software like OpenOffice, Gimp and Linux have become available, I've opted to use those over any pirated versions around... but not because they're legal and pirated versions are illegal.

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