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P2P Networks Blamed For Software Losses Doubling
L1TH10N writes "CNET News is reporting that software manufacturers have doubled their losses to $29 billion dollars, according to a BSA survey, which is blaming P2P networks for their misfortune. Seems a little too far-fetched to me - a P2P network would be the last place where I would download software, just too much chance that you are downloading a trojan onto your computer. Me thinks the Business Software Alliance are jumping on the bandwagon and vilifying P2P networks just as the Senate is taking aim at P2P providers."
Why steal software? Many software packages are reasonably priced, and many are offered with rebates and upgrade coupons. See more here
On the other hand, most of the truely great apps are written for linux. They are usually feature packed, have very little security problems, etc.. Examples would be MythTV, Apache, MySQL, the GIMP, Mozilla and Firefox, etc... The list goes on!
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You're in good company. Thomas Jefferson made the same arguments. He has a great essay on it, including the following paragraph:
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation."
A fuller examination of this discussion can be found at K5.
Engineering and the Ultimate
I know that five years ago, when I wanted software to do something, the first place I looked was a CompUSA or such. Today, the first place I look involves the link above.
When I wanted software to back up my DVDs, I spent a bare minimum of time searching around before I found free, open-source solutions on-line, where once I might have paid $100 for shrink-wrapped software.
And I do not think I am the only one.
I think you're right about many things, but wrong about a few.
First, shareware may be dead, but it's mostly because freeware (open source or not) has killed it. I honestly can't think of single shareware (or even adware) application that doesn't have a near-equivalent, sometimes superior, freeware replacement. And I'm talking about Windows applications.
Second, the problem with software (and music, and movies, and soon books once electronic readers improve, basically all so-called information goods) is that it's what economists call a pure public good: it's nonrival in consumption (my consumption has absolutely no effect on your consumption of the same good) and non-exclusive (you can't prevent me from consuming it). This is a classic case of market failure and an underlying cause of the 'free-rider' problem.
So yes, basing your business model on the production of a pure public good is problematic. I'm obviously simplifying, but the public good nature of information is *the* heart of the 'piracy' problem and it's silly to try moral-suasion in the face of economic reality.
Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
What the copyright holder owns is the copyright itself, not any particular copy of a work or the medium that it's contained on. The only way to "take" this from the copyright holder would be by fraudulently claiming to hold the copyright youself.
Any particular copy of a work and the medium that contains it is owned by the person who bought it. The copyright holder does not own that copy at all; what he has is a "lien" that prevents the owner of the copy from making further copies in most cases.
If the owner of the copy infringes on the copyright, he has violated the terms of the lien. This makes copyright infringement more akin to trespassing than to theft.
I would strongly recommend, for your own safety, that you do not use Kazaa to download software.
Kazaa (and any other software that uses the same networking protocols) uses a very simple file hashing mechanism to identify files. It is trivially easy to produce a modified file that confuses Kazaa into thinking it is the same as an original source file. This could be used to plant trojan horse software into your download.
If you insist on downloading software, use a network, such as gnutella, that uses a secure hashing algorithm (gnutella uses SHA1 -- edonkey et al use MD4 which is not as safe, but still much better than kazaa) to verify the file you downloaded is the one you wanted. And look up those SHA1 codes on a suitable catalogue web site (there are plenty of links from any P2P related site) before running the downloaded program.