BSA Claims Half of PC Users Are Pirates

judgecorp writes "Despite continued pressure on business users to buy legitimate software, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) reports that the campaign seems to be failing. Well over half (57%) of users surveyed in a global survey admit to using pirated software. That's a big increase from the same survey last year — when 43% admitted to using pirated software. The BSA surveyed 15,000 people in 33 countries."

Comments

Underestimation?

[GloomE]

Only half?

Re:Underestimation?

[exomondo]

Well:
Over half of PC users worldwide have admitted to using pirate software

Re:Underestimation?

[wvmarle]

TFA is just a troll. Or flamebait. Or both. I don't know.

Re:Underestimation?

[exomondo]

The blame lies 100% at the door of the greedy corporations who are gouging.

Not really. If you believe they are gouging then don't use their products, use a free alternative, like GIMP instead. Now the reason I say that is because I believe piracy is not a way of protest, in fact it just makes it worse. Consider that - as many here will attest - piracy != lost sale so piracy isn't necessarily 'hurting' the company, what it does is cement the idea that the software in question is the best (or at least 'necessary'), superior to cheaper or free alternatives, thus making it the de-facto standard in the market and driving out cheaper or free competitors.

The same thing happens with other software too, Windows for example. People claim to not like it and to pirate it to only use it out of necessity, but that just drives its use in the market leading to more people to use it out of necessity so to a degree piracy drives legitimate sales.
Obviously if legitimate sales start to sag but usage continues to grow then the companies see piracy as a problem.

Re:Underestimation?

[exomondo]

I should have put this in the above post but personally I think the 'Free for non-Commercial Use' model is a good method for most paid software companies. I see it as viable predominantly because it wouldn't be far from the system we have now (as in it would require minimal changes) except that these home users - that are probably just using the software for hobby or educational purposes and can't justify the cost nor the infringement penalties anyway - would not be painted as 'criminals' and those who derive income from the tools they use would be the ones who pay for the development of said tools.

It's not a perfect solution and it's not the only solution, but it's more harmonious while being not too far removed from what we have now.

Different Approach?

[exomondo]

Doesn't that indicate that perhaps a different approach is required? This sue-happy, mafia-style campaign isn't working so perhaps that's not the right way to go about it. I don't have the solution but clearly neither do they.

Re:Different Approach?

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

When you have lawyers on staff, every problem looks like an ambulance.

Re:And 43% of those surveyed...

[Technician]

Not all of the 43%. Some of us have learned from the Ernie Ball story and moved off closed source entirely.

Crackpipe statistics

[hangar47]

"UK is firmly below the global average, with just 27 percent of computer users admitting they have acquired software illegally last year. This translates into an approximate £1.2 billion loss by the software industry." - "People who use software without paying for it" != "People who would pay for it if they couldn't get it for free". Only a group like the BSA (and it can't be coincidental that their acronym so nicely fits with BullShitArtists) would use stats like that.

Sounds like Cop Statistics to me.

[rueger]

You can bet that BSA surveys are rigged to generate the highest numbers possible. After all, if "piracy" was declining they couldn't really insists that all of the draconian laws and penalties were needed.

Cops figured this out decades ago - no matter that crime stats have been falling for ten years, somehow the police always need more people, more equipment, and tougher laws.

Any survey by the BSA - or any group with a vested interest - is automatically suspect.

who pirates software any more?

[Surt]

I haven't needed to pirate anything in years, everything has a free and good-enough equivalent now. What does anyone pirate today?

Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not fully. I fully respect that companies need a way to make profit.

This is not a problem with the law, its often a problem with the companies. Asking way too much for certain products or having a horrible distribution scheme. Say about bittorrent what you wish, but if I actually look for some software, I find it, usually having to only look for 1 site. And it doesn't annoy the fuck out of me during installation.

Re:WHAT'S STOPPING US?

[tirnacopu]

What the majority believes may be wrong some times.

This is a well-known let's say 'urban legend', refuted several times throughout history but which keeps coming back as a way to stress just how dark the Dark Ages were or to make a Mayan discovery look more spectacular. Educated people over the millenia have always known that Earth is round, and belief otherwise is just that - a dogma imposed by some religions, methinks as a simple yet powerful way to describe how precious and rare life as we know is. See the "Myth of a flat Earth" page references for some amusement.
  There will also always be nutcases that deny common sense and science, some of them might even go as far as to negate Darwinism in American schools, but I do hold hope that humanity can work around those.