The Industry Standard - The BSA singles out eight states in software piracy report, suggests public safety link - Comments

Um, let's keep in mind that

Erik Swanson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:36:58 -0700

Um, let's keep in mind that if this software had been legally purchased over the internet, there's a VERY good chance that the staes wouldn't have seen a nickel in sales tax revenue. Or are Microsoft et al (the BSA) going to lobby for stricter internet sales tax enforcement? Highly dubious.

Chances are that pirating software put MORE cops on the street, because the money "saved" was spent on taxable items, or saved (ie, invested).

There was front page story the other day about "pirated" textbooks on college campuses. Now, colleges have been buying and seeling textbooks for astronomical profits for decades, but nobody's busting them.

Free stuff is seen as far more dangerous then profiteering. Isn't that odd? And admittedly, Craigslist has decimated Newspaper revenues, Record companies are hemmoraging profits (but not losing money, of course). Still, microsoft and Adobe seem to be doing OK, don't they?

One way to crack down on software piracy would be to get consumers in the habit of buying it. What if it were ILLEGAL to preload a computer with software? Would most people pony up the $200+ or windows, or learn open source?

That's what i thought. Sorry software companies. You get a fre ride already. Don't whine about people downloading your products and KEEPING them the industry standard.

Just think, if we could wave a want tomorrow and wipe out all pirated software: what would Microsoft's OS market share be a week later? What would Adobe's? How about Office? Piracy KEEPS THESE COMPANIES ON TOP.

@BSA is a Farce... which

mark — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:36:35 -0700

@BSA is a Farce... which well known F100 company is that? if you don't feel comfortable providing the name, can you post a link to an article about it? Thanks...

One major difference btween

Dan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:45:49 -0700

One major difference btween piracy and terrorism is that it's in the public intrest to stop terrorism, but it is not in the public intrest to stop piracy in fact its the very opposite.

@chris tompkins Only if it's

BSA is a Farce — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:33:54 -0700

@chris tompkins

Only if it's a small company. I'm aware of two cases filed against a well known F100 company that BSA basically turned down. This is with explicit, and well known internally, piracy. How the hell do all the new computers in the department come with latest versions of word, etc when they only buy hardware, and no software? And there's no corporate wide licensing. When the boss directly tells people to share CDs, and install from MSDN CDs.

As far as I'm concerned, BSA is a farce that is only used against small and midsized companies.

I must agree with DanielB.

Robert Smits — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:00:23 -0700

I must agree with DanielB. You cannot draw any conclusions about their so-called "report" unless you know what methodology they used to create it, and where the numbers came from. My computer, which has only opensource software on it cost $1500 and my software cost $0. Nada. Nothing. Because all my software is legal open source that I don't have to pay for. And how does their "report" deal with my situation and thousands of other open-source users? No one knows, because BSA doesn't tell us. Their "report" has ZERO credibility.

Yes, piracy is a problem.

DanielB — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:58:53 -0700

Yes, piracy is a problem. But when they say that the US lose 25 000 jobs because of piracy, this is kinda hilarious. How many jobs does the US lose because of *outsourcing* ? Many, many IT companies have outsourced some of their activites to countries line India, Malaysia, or China. Perhaps would it be better to do something about jobs lost because of outsourcing than to do something about jobs lost because of piracy.

Also there are some things in the report which are just nonsense when you use free and/or opensource software, This one especially: "For every dollar spent on PC hardware, less than sixty-five cents is spent on software. Yet, it is software thet ultimately provides the most valued functionality. Licensed software saves money in the long run."

That's just hilarious ! First if you have to pay $65 in software for every $100, well, that's already very expensive software to me. Also these people don't seem to know or understand that free and/or opensource software may also provide very valued functionality. Look at the cost of OpenOffice compared to the cost of Microsoft Office. The final note "Licensed software saves money in the long run" is just stupid. I don't encourage piracy, but not paying for commercial software you use *does* save money, but it's stealing. However, to really "save money in the long run" as they say, just use free and/or opensource software...

Well, thats

Reecy — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:34:49 -0700

Well, thats interesting.....
Lets look at this from another point of view also.... I, by no means promote Piracy, but at least lets get the facts straight... Most programs that become pirated are the ones that companies are charging you outragious amounts for... Granted ADOBE and MICROSOFT figure they will make it all up in their crazy price, but wouldnt people be more inclined to purchase the software if it was oh say $60.....

Oh and I wonder how much money they syphoned to do this bogus study next, I think we should do a study on pirated DVDs. I think that will bring a few more cops too!!!!!

It's bogus, same as

Bob — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:33:59 -0700

It's bogus, same as music.
If a 15 year old, unemployeed geek downloads cracked version of a $2,000 piece of software. The software company loses NOTHING. He wouldn't have/couldn't have bought the software anyway.
Same deal with music. You really think that guy would/could pay $.99 for those 80,000 songs?

I wonder how they determined

Les Denham — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:29:58 -0700

I wonder how they determined how much software was "pirated"? Do they have spyware installed on every computer to report who has what, and whether they paid for it?

I suspect a more likely scenario is an extrapolation from a non-random sample: Company A, with 20 employees, is reported by a disgruntled employee, and BSA does an audit and finds 20% of their software is unlicensed -- or at least they have mislaid the documentation of their license. Therefore BSA assumes every other company in the same kind of business in that town or state has 20% of their software unlicensed.

Is their a correlation between the amount of unlicensed software and how disgruntled ex-employees are? I wouldn't be surprised by it. Management which is too cheap to pay for software might also be too cheap to treat employees fairly.

Methodology is not

Woger — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:13:25 -0700

Methodology is not published, but some of the statements indicate severe flaws in their figures... notably, much of the numbers seems to be based on "assumptions" regarding things like volume licensing ("which *may* lead to increased piracy"), loading new software on old computers (how DARE you!), brand name avoidance (brands that all have software bundling agreements with BSA members)and the ratio of individual consumers to enterprise purchasers (and which seems counter to the volume licensing argument, since most individuals aren't buying volume licenses...).

All of these indicate that the numbers are NOT based on any analysis of actual computers or software, but on outdated paper trails provided by select partners. In other words, another fantasy report to pressure politicians while carefully avoiding facts.

Uh... That's some weak

c. — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:56:14 -0700

Uh... That's some weak logic. The BSA is arguing that rather than give software vendors money, consumers literally BURNED $4.2 billion in cash.

I'm pretty sure consumers spent that $4.2 billion somewhere, probably locally... probably on gas, actually. And corporate taxes working the way they do, the government probably got more of it than they would see if it went into the coffers of the software vendors.

So no, 25,000 cops aren't unemployed because of copyright infringement. Pull the other one.

I've heard that those

Chris Tompkins — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:43:41 -0700

I've heard that those campaigns work very well with recently fired IT workers. If they are angry about being let go, the first thing they do to "get back" is report all the pirated software to one of these numbers.

The BSA singles out eight states in software piracy report, suggests public safety link

Jordan Golson — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:33:59 -0700

The software industry's main lobbying group, the Business Software Alliance, would like you to know that piracy is a big problem.

The BSA has just released its 2007 State Piracy Study, which found that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States was unlicensed. That's 20 percent!

California, Illinois, Nevada and Ohio all had piracy rates over the national average -- except the study was only conducted in eight states, so we aren't sure if Nebraska is a hotbed of software piracy or not.

The BSA notes that the piracy cost software vendors $4.2 billion -- "higher than the national figure for all other countries in the world except China." (Emphasis theirs)

The BSA also says that the lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to "hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers." Who knew that if I had just paid for that copy of Microsoft Office in college, that there would be more cops walking the beat?

"The United States may have the lowest PC software piracy rate in the world, but still..."

This is an outrage! I, for one, think we should stop prosecuting all drug activity and focus on the scourge of society that is pirated software.

Seriously. Piracy is bad, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to claim that "oh, if only people paid for their software, then little Timmy would have a new middle school to go to."

The BSA finishes its press release by informing consumers of its "Know it, Report it, Reward it" program, which offers cash rewards for turning in pirates. Call 1-888-NO-PIRACY to report any software piracy at your employer. "The majority of BSA's leads come from current or former employees who have information relating to the unlicensed software activity." It's just like on the subway: "If you see something, say something" -- only this isn't terrorism, it's software piracy -- but that's pretty much the same thing, isn't it?

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