Some Thinkings In Software Piracy
Last Friday when I was visiting an internet portal consisting of a chat room of a specific group of people, I saw the following conversation:
A: How can I configure the system to prevent keeping getting the messages which notify me that the software I use is not genuine?
B: Just ignore the messages, as you still can use the software.
It just doesn't make sense why somebody wants to ask such question, and why the other answers like that. The answer should be "go to buy and use a genuine copy."
We all know the fact that in many places in the world there are still a lot of people using pirate software, but we realy need to think further about the reason. Are they really just can't afford to buy genuine software? No, I don't think so. The answer is not that easy. Many of the people can spend hundreds of dollars for dinner, for clothes, etc, but they just don't want to spend the same amount for a genuine copy of software.
I don't know anything about psychology, but I guess such people are using a way of thinking which is in the wrong logic. They may probably think that there's no reason to spend money to buy something which can be found elsewhere for free. But they may not know (hopefully) that doing so is just like somebody steals something and give to them to use. By doing so in a long time, this has become a using habit and people don't want to buy genuine software anymore.
As the result, software piracy is not just a problem of rich or poor. It's true that decreasing software price in specific places of the world may increase the sale; However, proper education and time are also quite necessary. This should be a collaboration of different parties. Schools should provide such kind of education in a very early stage so people know that using priate software is a kind of guilt from their early ages. People has enough money should begin using genuine software, to enjoy better services. Softwre companies should increase the quality of software, and increase the quality of the services provided for genuine users. If the users who are currently using pirate software get same functionality and same level of services or support when they are using genuine software, they would probably continue using pirate software because it's free. Governments also need to provide support on policies for genuine software. Pirate software will not disappear in a minute, so we also need some time. If you know some of your friends may be using pirate software, tell them why using genuine software is important; and tell them how they can benefit from doing so. If they can't afford using genuine copy, there are also a lot of free software and evaluation software available. Pirate one are not their only choice.
All the things above are just some personal ideas, the concepts are not new and most people may already know. My intend is just to let even more people, especially those who are currently using pirate software but actually can afford genuine software, know the importance and benefits of using genuine software. Using pirate software is not free, but it costs much (guilt, illegal in some places, etc). As the result, let's help everyone around us stop using pirate software; let's help make the software industry better.