piracy and oss

[Scott Wood]

--- Marcel Kunath <kunathma@pilot.msu.edu> wrote:
> Ok lets stay with free software. I am trying to see this through the
> economical
> point. Every good has a price tag. Every consumer has a price. If a person is
> willing to spend 50 dollars on a program which gives him access to PDF files.
> Company A sells a program which does so and charges 51.00 dollars.
> Organization
> B created a free software program which does the same thing but with less
> bells
> and whistles but gives it away for free. A key code is readily available to
> crack company A's product therefore reducing company A's product price to 0
> dollars just like the free software product.
[..]
> Piracy is a clear supply and demand issue and it seems
> to work against free software.

I kinda see your point.  But your example presumes that relies on the fact that
the proprietary solution is always the better one.  I would put apache web
server up against an IIS anyday and probably win the day.  For cross platform
integration, linux stomps butt on win-anythign (not to mention in many other
categories as well).
Furthermore - I have seen some of these 'cracks'.  Although many of them will
provide seemless operations, I have seen a number of programs that have found
successful ways to work around even the best of them (things like net
conversations with the mfgr's server when you are online, etc).  And one must
always remember that a crack is made with someone that has no regard for
intellectual property rights.  Although I have not heard as much about it,
there is always the potential of having a nasty code-let piggybacking a cracker
program opening any of the alleged pirates to a potential security risk not
shared by the legitimate user(s).
The same might be said for some lesser known purported OSS projects, but most
of them are on the up-and-up including things like PGP or other public-private
signature schemes to verify the integrity of the distribution when it reaches
your system.

> I don't want to
> see the FBI or BSA take action anyhow. It should be the lawyers for the
> offended corporation which tracks pirates and brings them to court.

But if you are going to acknowledge 'economic realities' such as effects on
demand of people circumventing the existing supply chain through criminal acts,
then you also have to acknowledge the geopolitical realities that govern the
business world.  A corporation faced with a perceived loss of revenue due to
piracy, and seeing many other corporations facing the same perceived losses is
not going to necessarily 'want' to begin by simply pursuing it themselves.

Business abhors a vacuum and that includes service and even not-for-profit
assistance and advocacy organizations.  In a climate with many big-money
companies all facing their own perceived levels of loss from piracy, it was
simply a matter of time for something like the BSA to evolve into existance. 
The next step will be further lobbying of the government to further restrict
personal rights in favor of business ownership and control over intellectual
property.  Why the hell do you think Bill Gates is buying up all the clip-art
rights he can find, etc?

> I think Microsoft's "Report Piracy" page is a pretty good thing.

I can't comment as I have not seen it, but with their already flourishing 'big
brother' type image, I am surprised that this would be seen from a company that
generally is rather adept at good marketing.

> > Are you sure that unlicensed software is so common?
> 
> I am not sure but if each single person had just one single unlicensed
program
> that would be billions of dollars for the entire software industry.

Such an example can be applied to far too many aspects of life and society. 
The last thing we need is a 'war on piracy' that could be comparable to the
ever-failing 'war on drugs', 'war on poverty' or even the exiting facets of the
on-going 'war on crime'.  Meanwhile, drug use hasn't really curtailed, poverty
hasn't gone away and crime is at an all time high - all that has flourished
throughout is the size, sphere-of-control and influence of the government in
our everyday lives....

Scott

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/