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PC Software Piracy Decreases Worldwide, But Remains Rampant (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A new report published by The Software Alliance shows that usage of pirated PC software is decreasing worldwide. While this is a positive trend for the industry, piracy remains rampant in many countries. This includes Libya, where a massive 90 percent of all software is used without permission.
I bought legal copies of Windows 9 from ebay for all my machines, so I didn't have to pirate software. Just had to wait until they were shipped in from Hong Kong.
... are the tech industry, the videogame industry especially with the rise of the internet is basically making broken fraudulent/products and upping the corporate propaganda campaign to sell microtransactions and loot boxes and that requires basically stealing the software. Diablo 3, starcraft 2 and now even starcraft 1 with the latest patch now have drm in them - aka - the software you paid for now requires permission from another computer and violates your privacy at the same time.
No thanks the mass of tech illiterate idiots that came online high speed internet.
If your software has switched to a DRM, always-online, subscription based model, the odds are I'll ignore it completely before I'll pirate it. And I'll pirate it before I buy it if I can't figure out:
A - What it is that your product does exactly
B - What specific licensing malarkey I need to do what I want
C - What the 67 different versions actually restrict me from doing
D - If the product even works as claimed, has decent support, gets updates, etc.
Actually I think it is because most software is hooked to the cloud. And we pay for service contract to use it monthly vs. having the software on your PC.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The most pirated software in the world, Windows, was given out for free for nearly two years. Of COURSE piracy drops when the price literally becomes zero.
I doubt very much that people will pirate games if the game is more a subscription service. The games with the real longevity are in 90s cartridges. Single player games seem to have disappeared. If you want a good game of chess, you'll probably "apt-cache search" or google for an online variant. Would anyone bother getting "battle chess" these days? I see it was remade in 2014, but requires Windows {xp,7,8}, so that's going to be a no from me, won't be looking any further.
Why UNIX?
Unfortunately, I can't pirate software because it's illegal.
But company's think it's OK to fleece us by charging $60-$70 for a video game.
I don't disagree that some prices are ridiculous. I stay away from those games... or wait a year until it's $20 on steam. I've never felt the need to play a game that is brand new and hasn't had all the bugs fixed yet for a premium price. I'd rather pay a quarter of the starting price once all the bugs have been fixed.
A lot of software companies these days seem to use the end-user as their QA department.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I don't know what you are talking about. Most of the games on tablets/phones are either "free" or a few bucks. Most console games are in $25-$50. Only the absolute premium, high-end blockbuster games go for $70 - and in an era where it costs me around $60-100 to take my family of 4 out to the movies, this seems reasonable for something I'll play for many, many hours.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
> This is Slashdot so I'm waiting for all the "Piracy shouldn't be a crime... it's not theft...
How about having a little perspective. WHO GIVES A SHIT about software piracy in a failed state where slavery is being openly practiced? People really need to get their priorities straighted out.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I don't think paying $50 to $70 for a game released on first day is that outrageous, depending on the game. Lots of games now can occupy your time for weeks, if not months. The are not the simple jump and shoot games from the 80/90's. A great deal of them are open ended games with constant updates and expansions being release.
What I do think is outrageous is them continuing to charge $60 and $70 for a game that has been out for 2 or 3 years. GTAV on the PC is my example. I also have a beef with them charging you 50 bucks for a game then charging you 10 a month to continue to play it.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
"...piracy remains rampant in many countries. This includes Libya, where a massive 90 percent of all software is used without permission."
With a 90% piracy rate, I only have one question; why the hell do the other 10% even bother being legal? I mean seriously, it's rather obvious enforcement is on par with morals and ethics.
Countries that clearly don't give a shit about legal software probably shouldn't be counted in the piracy statistics. They're more of a constant fuck-you outlier.
You are still thinking in the 1990s. The average AAA title costs $70, just for the game. Want content that should have been included, or weapons that are useful so you are not facing down Foozle with a pea shooter? You are going to shell out $250 in DLC and microtransactions. The newest games, you wind up having to pay the premiums because you never know when the DLC stops being offered, a la Fortnite's "limited time" marketing.
Of course, you can pick up that mobile game. Free to play, but it is engineered where you are not going to have any chance at beating it unless you pony up a C-note or two, or in some MOBAs, thousands of dollars so you have a chance of surviving.
Anyone remember how a 0% piracy rating promised lower game prices, so don't copy that floppy? Consoles have a 0% piracy rate, and you wind up paying hundreds for a game which used to cost you $50, with all content included.
Actually I think it is because most software is hooked to the cloud. And we pay for service contract to use it monthly vs. having the software on your PC.
Literally I've used software for 35+ years and have never used software "hooked to the cloud"
On the other hand I use all (ALL) open source software and have never pirated an open source software because that would be ridiculous.
I am OP and somebody modded my facts -1 but modded you +3. smfh.
Any type of service hooked to a cloud is used by people with more money than brains. Apple and Microsoft cloudwarez plus Google cloudwarez are lamewarez.
Warez will always be warez but who wants shitwarez. Open-source-world has much better software in general unless you're making a movie pretty much. This goes for database software, Linux backends, Linux frontends etc. Tell Jeff Bezos to download cloud-based IIS. smfh.
Bad job mods. This is why Slashdot is not an effect any more only an afterthought. Notice nobody gets their servers overloaded now? Cloudflare is not why either.
and who reads an 30+ page one.
Also MS has insane rules each HOST CORE in a VM cluster must be licensed for windows even if say you only need a few windows vm's and it's mostly Linux vm's.
If you look at pages 17 through 19 (inclusive, of the actual report), you'll find some very fine prose that the BSA use to describe the methodology they follow for determining the amount of unlicensed software.
... ... Respondents are asked how many software packages, and what type, were installed on their PC in the previous year; what percentage were new or upgrades; whether they came with the computers or not; and whether they were installed on a new computer or one acquired prior to 2017..."
It's utter garbage.
It's about as accurate as a weather forecast could be. It contains English-language "formulae" such as:-
Unlicensed Rate = Unlicensed Software Units / Total Software Units Installed
and Total Software Units Installed = #PCs Getting Software x Software Units per PC
Just look at that second formula for a moment. This is an approximation at best. But the absolute worst part of the report is the part in which the BSA explain how they get these numbers. This is, in fact, done for them by IDC. And here is the methodology:-
A key component of the BSA Global Software Survey is a global survey of more than 22,500 home and enterprise PC users, conducted by IDC in November 2017. The survey was conducted online or by phone in 32 markets that make up a globally representative sample of geographies, levels of IT sophistication and geographic and cultural diversity....
So let's just translate that.
1. This survey was based on evidence from a telephone survey.
2. People were called and asked to accurately remember what software had been installed on a computer in the preceding 12 months.
3. The result of a survey of 22,500 people was then extrapolated up to represent the entire world's software piracy problem.
We need to remember that this sort of document gets handed around the halls of government and shown to policy makers; the poor data samples, invalid questions, wild speculations, and sloppy calculations that form the heart of this paper then get used as the basis for legislation. Don't get me wrong - software piracy is wrong. With so much fabulous free and open source software available, there really is no excuse for it any more.
But it's important to remember that this sort of paper is going to be used to argue for ever-more Draconian laws which will restrict the freedoms of ordinary computer users. It's really important that documents like this get properly challenged and that legislators are left clearly understanding that this report belongs in the fiction section of the bookshop...
Microsoft and Dell no longer wants to sell me software for my Windows machines (they seem to like their lease model).
And I am not sure how one would pirate Linux...
Check your premises.
I agree.
As an example, Adobe Creative Suite was one product that was very expensive to buy, and all but begged piracy. Now you can try it for free and then pay a "modest" price to use it every month here-after. In the age of Netflix, Hulu, YouTube Red, Spotify, what's ONE MORE subscription being auto-charged to your favorite credit card?
According to this one random web site I chose from a Google search, Forrester Research estimated that there were in excess of two billion active PCs in the world by the end of 2015. That's more than 2 years ago.
This is probably an unfair calculation [though no less fair than the BSA's rubbish] but if you estimated that, on average, each person in the 22,500 survey pool had, say, 5 PCs [it was stated that this sample pool was a mix of personal and business users], then the number of people surveyed for this report amount to 0.005625% of the entire global population of PC users.
Five thousands of one percent.
Extrapolated up and used as the basis for a report from the BSA? If you were a scientist of any field that included the use of statistical analysis and you published a report based on a sample size of five thousands of one percent of the likely total pool, would you expect your analysis to be taken seriously?
I stopped buying and playing new PC video games over 6 years ago.
The last game I bought was Minecraft.
The last game I payed money to play was Boom Beach. When they turned up the monetization on Boom Beach to ridiculous levels, I quit playing that because it had reached "pay to win" levels.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Or it's because the "must-have" software is decreasing.
Could be worse. You could be addicted to WoW, where every Tuesday a new patch is dropped, complete with a neutering of various traits previously important to making your class / the game fun; or the expacs, where they continue to punish the Retribution Paladins, such that by the time BfA drops, we will have the PvP mobility of a bloated goat and the strength of dying gazelle (still haven't gotten Consecrated Ground back yet)...but we are not alone in this, Death Knights are getting nerfed too.
Could be worse.
Well, I wasn't going to bring that up, but since you went there. Mine is Second Life.... why are you looking at me like that?
In SL I pay a yearly fee for a premium account and then a monthly fee to maintain a sim. Then I also buy things from in game developers. I pay real money for this. I could earn all this in game, I have before, but chosen not too.
I guess it could be worse. We could addicted to hookers and blow.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
In the age of Netflix, Hulu, YouTube Red, Spotify, what's ONE MORE subscription being auto-charged to your favorite credit card?
seriously? $10 here, $5 there.. it adds up.. quickly.
$50/mo. is not modest. It's equivalent to re-buying the entire suite every 3 years. I never upgraded that often prior to that forced change.
Here is the plan about Libya
If it was PC games I can sort of understand, Windows OS to a point too but considering we are in the age of web services and open source and gluts of free applications, more than any in history including the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, what applications would be pirated?
Make SELinux enforcing again!
You re-release perfectly good games with new DRM and always on internet requirements.
You release a stripped down version of the game and sell the rest as DLC
You expect every title to be paid for again on every platform.
You abandon your hardware
You cut off the servers
You require extra sales funnel installations
You install spyware
You completely change games core mechanics with no notice.
You make up silly numbers and complain about piracy.
You take gamers to court
You charge monthly fees on top of full retail price.
You make micro-transactions mandatory.
You re-release and ruin classics.
Sorry, not sorry.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
When software scales to larger and larger installations the effort for complex lifecycle management can make a monthly subscription that keeps everyone on the latest released version for all licensed users look very attractive.
Which is fine - nobody said it was bad to offer it as an option.
I mean its the BSA, of course they have a history of exaggerated claims many of which have been covered here on Slashdot in the past. The shocking part is more that is is being covered as news on Slashdot instead of pointed out as absurd.
A combination of several factors, increased use of open source, increased use of cloud, increased use of mobile devices...
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Many programmers are willing to write code for free.
Many companies are willing to give away code for free so that it helps sales of their hardware or services.
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Funny enough, I just installed a Russian rooted Android 10.1 on my Chinese stereo in my German car. Never worked better!
Careful, you'll get accused of cultural appropriation.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
That's just it. People look at it in absolutes rather than in terms of value.
Let's say you buy a short game with a crappy single player campaign for $70. After 10 hours of finishing the campaign and throwing away never to be played again you're at $7/hour.
About half the cost of seeing a movie in the cinema.
About a quarter of the cost of seeing a band play.
Less than the cost of going out to dinner, and far less than going to the pub with others.
About half the hourly cost of a trip to a themepark or water park.
Cheaper than bowling, or hiring a tennis court.
If you get a game with a more decent campaign (I've sunk 50 hours into Nier so far), or a multiplayer option, or replay value, it becomes the cheapest form of entertainment you can buy.
How many applications did you use to have to download and run on your computer 35 years ago. vs. What you need to download now.
We had programs that checked your bank account via a modem. They were checkbook programs, tones of game we played once. Dictionaries, Encyclopedia... All on disk (Well CD (25 years ago)). Even if we were a avid BBS User, we would have a couple of Terminal Emulators, Software that would download message boards, so you can read it offline and sync them back when you get online again....
Most of this crap software we don't even download executable but access via the Web.
You have gone to the cloud and didn't even realize it. The fact that you are posting on Slashdot shows this.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I understand that people don't agree with a price setting of goods, be it software or whatever. In this case, $60 may be outrageous. Or not. Doesn't really matter.
What I don't understand is how this mysteriously translates into "I will just make my own copy, because I am entitled to it because of ... reasons".
People don't sneak into theaters or concerts (okay, maybe a minority does). People don't sneak into theme parks. People don't steal apples. But for some reason, in the case of software, this is all okay, because I don't agree with the price setting.
What ever happened to: I think it is too expensive, I am not having it?
If you get a game with a more decent campaign (I've sunk 50 hours into Nier so far), or a multiplayer option, or replay value, it becomes the cheapest form of entertainment you can buy.
This is truth. I've bought GTA V across 3 platforms, PS3, XBone, and now on the PC when it went on sale for $29 on Steam. I know some people would wonder about buying the same game several times, but I've literally played the hell out of this game. I really can't put a number on how many hours I've played it. But if I was to put a dollar amount on it, it would be under a $1 an hour.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Well there are some people that are just to cheap no matter how much money they have. If they can get something for nothing, they will. Some people its a challenge. Beat the system and get it for free. I know someone like that. They will pirate a game before they buy it. They don't even play it. It's the thrill of getting something for free that turns them on.
To me the risks out way any potential pay off you get from pirating a game. Let's face it, some of the people that crack these games don't have the best intentions at heart. Then there is just the trouble of not getting updates, having to fight the game to install it, and all kinds of other shit. I want to play a game, not fight it.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I'd rather go OS than pay a subscription but then I'm a casual user. Having my computer out of action due to viruses also has a cost for me nowadays, so that's pirated software out.