by: Megs S. Lunn
STOP PIRACY! |
The issue of pirated software is one
that the software industry fights on the daily basis. The major centers of
software piracy are in places like Russia and China where salaries and
disposable income are comparatively low.
Given that people in developing (like the Philippines) and
economically depressed countries will fall behind the industrialized world
technologically if they get cannot afford access to new generations of
software, is it reasonable to blame someone for using pirated software when it
costs two months' salary to buy a legal copy of MS Office?
Yes, because piracy and other means of producing copies and renditions
of protected intellectual work, is illegal, immoral and unacceptable.
What approach could software companies use to combat the problem
apart from punitive measures, like pressuring the government to impose
sanctions on transgressors?
The first approach that software companies, like any other
enterprise that produce intellectual property, or IP, is to reinforce that IP
Infringement (violation of a law or a right).
The issue of IP protection is not about cost or price, but
protecting the work that developers have put into a piece of software is valued
just as a painting or a sculpture.
Economically depressed countries and economies do not fall behind
the industrialized or the technologically connected ones, because they cannot
afford software - but because they never developed the skills to produce IP and
place themselves in a level field with other economies. For countries
like India, whose citizens comprise a large population of the think-tank behind
our connected world.
Second, the number of users and the range of devices which run an
application or software has expanded that their developers are able to lower
the price point of these products, to a level that makes it reasonable to buy
than to copy. This is a classical supply-side/demand-side
economics. Make it usable on more devices, more people can buy and
therefore pricing can be lowered. Invertly, develop more devices to use
software and applications - PCs, laptops, tablets and smart phones; connected
automobiles and appliances, then the demand for software and applications grow
to a critical mass that its developmental costs can be spread across more
users, therefore lowering its offering price.
Third, the advancement in connectivity has made software
affordable and accessible to a point that buying it is not longer much as an
issue as knowing how to use it.
MS Office now comes included when you buy a new PC and Windows
Phone; it is downloadable free for use in an Android or IOS Device.
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