Comments on: 3 Count: Frozen Loot

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:36:47 +0000

This was covered in a later 3 Count here: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/06/08/3-cou.....

By: Daniel Maxson

Daniel Maxson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:41:56 +0000

the Pirates may be a bigger political threat now that they have a seat in parliament check it out: http://www.newsy.com/videos/ahoy_european_parli.....

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:59:53 +0000

For the most part I agree there. I had a friend in high school that was a hugely prolific pirate. This was back in the late 90s but he had a CD wallet filled with dozens of CDs of everything from Office to PhotoShop. In the days before broadband, this was quite a feat. He had all of this pirated software but not a penny to his name. I don't think he could have purchased any of those apps and probably would have either done without or, as you mentioned, find free alternatives.I never bought into the "one pirated copy = one lost sale" story. It just doesn't hold up to what I've seen and believe to be true. Do some pirated copies mean loss sales, yes, but one 1 to 1.

By: valerie

valerie — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:07:19 +0000

I'm glad you threw in "if it assumed that every pirated copy is a lost sale." I know people who, for example, own MS Office pirated but if that were unavailable to them they still wouldn't buy it because of the price tag. They'd be using Open Office or something instead. I'd take a gander that were piracy impossible, the money lost that would be made up would be much much less than the $50.2 billion the study is guessing. From what I see around here, most piracy occurs (with the people I know) because the software prices are what they consider to be too high. Thankfully for me, though, I own legally due to academic pricing.