Are Warez(Softwarez Piracy) Really That Bad

[happyman88]

I know Warez is kinda stealing and everything, but the copanies who sell software, sell it at rediculous prices. A film costs more to make but is cheaper. Companies are ripping us of by charging high prices for software that are expensive to make but they could still charge something like £7 and still make a good profit.

 

[Hackerman]

well you have a point, but you also have to take into consideration labor, difficulty of creation, working out bugs, marketing, target audience.

Say.... Photoshop for example. most people say "650 dollars , oh **** that" these are not the target consumers. the target consumers are professional photographers, digital artists, and much more.

Adobe makes a wide selection of products like photoshop for the every day average joe, like elements. It does a lot of things photoshop does, has a lot of built in elements, but is not as powerful. But the thing is its only 100, 550 less than PS 7 or 8 (CS), and you can make some cool stuff with it if you really wanted to.

i really think people pirate things not because its over priced, they just don't want to pay. I mean who wants to pay to use somthin right, that just doesnt make sense [/sarcasm]. Honestly I think 30-60 dollars for a video game is a fair price. Programming is a ***** and a half, and you try making 3d models, a 3d landscape, than creating the animation, logos to go along with it, than see yourself spending hundreds of thousands on trying to make your product known. Obviously you didn't do it for shits and giggles other wise you wouldnt be charging 40 and upwards for a game.

If you want free software try opensource. You can find some cool shit on open source sites like sourceforge.net
Also, try making your own game, or program, than you might understand how much work is really put into one of these games or programs to make them work flawlessly.

also I think you have a distorted view of how the market works. You think companies work for YOU, you think that they should do things to make it easier for you, when in fact those companies are just like you, they are trying to make money. Sure they could charge 7 bux for a game, but hell whats the point in "just getting by." Companies aren't companies to make yourlife easier, if they don't make money, than what exactly is the point of being a company.

 

[cas0496]

If everyone stopped pirating software then maybe the prices WOULD go down.

Stop stealing and enjoy the price cuts!!

 

[Harper]

How bad you ask...? This Bad .

www.bsaa.com.au
Software Piracy is the illegal copying of computer software. This is costing Australia over $220 million each year in lost sales. It impacts jobs, innovation and forces the cost of software up.

More facts and figures, go here.

And if you want to see a page, that will make your hair stand up on end (provided that you have a guilty conscience), you should how easy it is to report some one. And it's not just your computers stores or companies.

BTW, that line about "But your are only a home user, Microsoft (or the BSAA) are more interested in the bigger companies and computer shops" that you might here some of your freinds comment about. That's is B.S.
I have had one run in with the BSSA myself as my a prevois flatmate was trying to get back to me. It the end, the turned out that the "COPIED DISKS" that were reported were nothing more than the offsite backs up. And that my home computer was covered with the MOLP Program. This does mean that if I ever quite my job, I do need to give the liences and software back ups back.

Now if you think that your are paying too much for MS Office, there are other programs out there. My personal favorite is Open Office at is does all the things that I need it to do.

BTW, Hackerman, I like your post up there. I pretty much covers every thing else.

 

[happyman88]

The prices won't go down

Even if software piracy completly stopped, the prices would not go down becasue it would'nt be in the companies intrests to do so as everyone else would be charging the same amount. The Software compaines will charge what they can get away with!

 

[*PyRo*]

I think that games are usually worth their money GTA3 is still my fav game and i was happy to pay 100 bucks for that. As hackerman said a ****load of work goes into the top games/programs and these people have to make a living too.

The things that are stupid are some programs that ask for about 30US$ just to unlock it when it has a few small functions. Some of the best programs are free like ad-aware, spybot s&d, zonealarm, dc++ etc.

And again as hackerman said photoshop has released the simplier elements for cheaper because most people dont use all the functions except the professionals who have the money to buy that stuff.

In conclusion hackerman is completly right!

 

[hygor]

I personally dont have a problem with software piracy...

to a student who needs to use certain programs for their degree and cannot possibly afford them... piracy can look like an acceptable option!

and the whole load of crap they spin about prices falling if piracy didnt exist is crap... all companies exist to make a profit... piracy affects very little of their profits... otherwise face it Microsoft wouldnt make the billions of dollars it does!

I do not pirate software, but I also do not think its wrong

 

[Harper]

Excuse me, but I will be blunt.

to a student who needs to use certain programs for their degree and cannot possibly afford them... piracy can look like an acceptable option!

Can not afford them.....?? WTF????

What's are the
* ACADEMENTIC VERSION
* EDUCATIONAL VERSION
* STUDENT TEACHER VERSION
suppose to be their for?

Like the Academetic Versions of most Adobe Software are about 1/3 of the price of the Full Retail. And they are the same product.

The Student / Teacher Version of MS Office Standard gives you 3 liences at about AU$269. The retail version (with 1 liences) is about AU$665.
You getting $1995 worth of software there of a small $269. And with that being sead, you can find another 2 students with that are interested in getting office, therefore you will only be paying $90 for a copy of MS Office Standard. That is much better than OEM.

Sorry, but piracy is still piracy in the eyes of the law.

 

[hygor]

its all down to availability and whether your university has deals with the company... I know people who are at one university which has a deal with m$ so they get the software very cheaply to use until they leave uni... at my uni however there is no such deal and if I was to buy everything I needed I would have to pay full price...

I choose not to pirate... i just use the software that is provided in the labs at uni, but if I did do it I would have no reservations about doing so... as we are supposed to learn to use certain tools as programmers and then they charge some people a pittance for the privalege and then just because your uni has no deal you have to pay full price... I have to use Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Architect for a few of my modules... have you ever seen how much that costs full price???? Luckily I have good lab access and dont need to pirate, but there is no way I could afford that if I needed to buy it!

 

[Jorsoft]

Excellent points! Here is my opinion on warez:
Just because 1 million copies of "Super Grand Theft Dune Buggy" are downloaded in one year, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is 1 million lost sales. A good majority of the people who download these games illegally wouldn't have paid $50 for them in the first place, or any amount of money for that matter.
Game prices are $40 and $50 for a reason. It costs a lot of money to make a game (the average cost is something like $1.5 million for non-budgetware titles). The consumer audience is much smaller than a movie, so they HAVE to charge more. Almost everyone in the world can go see Titanic (and most did), but a staggeringly smaller amount would buy Deus Ex. And since the overhead is still low either way, higher prices must be charged to pay for the development, publishing, and advertising of a PC Game.
The best thing you can do to understand it, however, is to make your own game and try to sell it. When you find your work, which consumed your life, your job, and your family for 6 months, 80 hours a week, just sitting on some schlubb's Warez Site for any bum to download, THEN tell me that downloading warez is okay.