The Pirated Software Problem in the 3rd World

RockDoctor writes "Dark Reading carries an article by one Nathan Spande who works in Cambodia. Locally he finds that OpenOffice.Org and MS Office are the same price ($2), or $7-20 by downloading. He discusses why the economics of OpenSource don't work in this environment, and how it contributes to global computer security issues through the "little extras" (trojans, spambots and other malware) that typically accompany such "local editions" of software. The economics of software outside the west are very different to what most people are used to."

Comments

Re:"the economics of open source don't work..."

[kripkenstein]

From the information in the article, it appears that the economics of open source work much better than the economics of closed-source, proprietary software. The business model of OpenOffice.org is perfectly happy when local vendors sell their software at $2 per disk. The business model that Microsoft Office is based upon is violated when that happens.

Well said. But there is another perspective on this: the economics of FOSS and the real economics of Microsoft share some things in common. Both are based on the simple fact that software can be copied at virtually no cost; this lets FOSS exist (and explains why you don't see FOSS automobiles), and this allows Microsoft to (1) benefit from their product being pirated, as it creates market share that may pay later, (2) bundle whatever they want into the OS (it doesn't cost them any more), and kill competitors.

Piracy in the third world is really just part of MS's business plan. Bill Gates has even admitted as much (I can find the link if anyone wants it).