Re: WHO???

[sirthomas@aol.comyadayada (SirThomas)]

>> Yes, but what about the freeware/shareware and small potatoes
>> commercial software folks.
>     What small potatoes commercial producer is suffering from piracy?

The estimated annual revenue loss is printed in the tens of billions every so
often in the industry trade papers.  I'll keep an eye out for it.  And don't
anyone give me that, "You can lie with statistics," garbage.  The numbers are
estimates put together by people with way more experience than you or I so live
with them.  (What?  You don't take advice from experts?  You must do your own
surgeries then.  Or write all your own software! :)

One more time, really really simply:  

#1:  Commercial software is NOT free!  It doesn't grow on trees if one waters
them well, and it certainly doesn't roam the plains peacefully grazing just
waiting for some code cowboy to come round it up!

#2:  A company must PAY programmers to create software.  Programmers sell their
skills for money just like everybody else!

#3:  In order to pay the programmers, a company must be able to SELL software. 
Companies must make back their investments and continue development.  In our
industry, about 18 months is an entire technological cycle where machines and
technologies have changed.  The pressure to stay on the edge is CONSTANT!  (I'm
sure other programmers will agree with me on that one!  Well, maybe not the
mainframe guys. :)

#4:  Every copy of software that is in use and is not paid for means LOST SALES
for the company.  The company can't pay the programmers.  The programmers must
eat.  They look for new jobs at different firms.  Too many lost sales, the
company goes under.  But, the pirated software lives on and on.  Small
companies are very vunerable.  Think about it.  If you had a company that
produced popular widgets and they could be easily reproduced on a copy machine
for next to nothing, how long would you stay in business?  (Translate this to
the whole MP3 debate and you KNOW why record labels are scared.  I know of kids
going to college ordering Dell computers with CD-ROM / CD-ROM burners who are
no longer buying CDs.  They are packing 160+ songs onto one CD and trading with
friends.  In a year, I'll bet that they will have more of a music collection
than most middle sized town libraries!)

#5:  Bug-free, pirated software costs the pirate because companies don't offer
support or upgrades.  If the company is small, the cost could be as extreme as
the company going under.  But, do pirates really care?  Heck no!  They just
move on to the next piece of software.

Why is this concept so hard for some on here to understand?

------------------

"Is it not enough that you succeeded; must all others must fail as well?"

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