Quote:
Originally Posted by tbhausen
You guys don't trust the free-market economy... Overpriced items face competition from those that are a better value. Theft/piracy muddles the system. and short-circuits the free-market process. I bet M$ office suite would cost a lot less if everyone who used it to date actually paid for it.
Todd/Indy
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You're totally wrong. Piracy has very little impact on the market, because most "pirates" would use a different program or go without if they couldn't pirate it... Just as an example, my brother used a pirated version of office for years and years, until he was put in a position where he needed a legit copy. Rather than buy it, he simply switched to open office.
Obviously there are people who'd still buy something, but pirate because it's free, but those people are a relatively small minority. Since pirates are a significant minority of the overall computer population, you're now talking about a minority of a minority who are actually "hurting" the software companies.