Friday, February 2, 2007

Pirated ,stolen, etc. Software

It's amazing to me how many people don't care about the licensing terms on software. Even more alarming than those that know and don't care, are those that have no idea they're doing anything wrong. "Well my sister in Montana purchased this copy of MS Office and I just burned a copy...what's the problem? It's not like I'm selling it out of my van, down by the river." Well here's one for you... Granted those folks were operating on a huge scale compared to the people who use their sister's copy of MS Office, but the whole thing still makes me wonder how long this will go on. Have you seen the prices for Windows Vista or Microsoft Office 2007? Yeah, thats a lot of money. I can certainly argue that every person I know running a pirated copy of Windows XP and Office 2003 can be blamed (in part) for the price of software these days. I get a montly email from MS detailing a few of thier legal battles with piracy and sales of illegal "knock-off" software and OS's. They spend a lot of money going after these dumbasses. The only reason they spend so much is because it's cheaper than letting them get away with it.

So...stop making my software more expensive. Go buy the stuff like most of us do.

Thoughts? Comments? Tell me to shove it? Anything?

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