Piracy, warez and You.

[winmobilelawyer]

The reason people will download a song file off the internet and not walk out with a CD from a store is because that song file is worth ZERO. It literally has no value. Artists and music companies would like you to think it has value but it doesn't. When you pay 99 cents to download on iTunes you are not paying for the song, you are paying for the service of being able to download that song. Once I own something I have the right to control and give that to whomever I please. Don't get mad at me yet....

I really do believe I should be able to give whatever ever I own to whomever I want, **BUT** on the same token, those who create the songs, the software, etc also have that same right to give their software to whomever they choose. This whole issue is not about STEALING, it's about breaking LICENSING agreements. Companies are basically selling you software on the condition that you promise to be the only person who uses it. You already own the product, therefore being the person who takes it without paying is not stealing, and technically using stolen software is not a crime unless in order to install it, you use a stolen code (that you personally stole) or agree to a license agreement. But the point is that companies are contracting with you for use of the software, which is why they can sell to a school for cheaper than a business or sell an individual license for cheaper than a business office multiuse license. Though I think there should be limitations on how far reaching licensing agreements should be enforceble (i.e. Company A sells you PPC Software on the agreement that you only use it on tuesdays), I think that a producer of a product does have a basic right to control their products.

/end legal rant

[PatrickS]

Something has value if there are people willing to pay for it, and not otherwise. Since people do, in fact, pay for file downloads (obviously not the intellectual property thieves, but honest folks), the files do have value.

[Fat Tony]

I am a Pirate. I live in L.A. where everything is fake or copied.

I LOVE going downtown and purchasing the latest movies on DVD. They're only 4 for $20 and if it's slow you can get away for 4 for $15. When a DVD comes out, they rip the DVD and those are always just a fiver each. I had Pirates of the Carabian on DVD just a month after it came out, that was what two years ago? Now the DVD just being released lol.

I haven't purchased/paid for a CD in 5 years.

What if a useful app is just ten bucks? I'd buy it. It's worth ten bucks not to search, download, then run the crack, etc. But when a program is $25 and up, I'd go thru the trouble. When a program "asks" for a donation, I usually send them a ten spot.

Want more people to buy your hard work? Lower your prices. Instead of making a program $35 bucks, try making it ten bucks and watch how many more people buy it then hack it.

[Touch999]

Honestly, piracy will never go away.Sad fact. support the software writter!Witho them, we are nothing.

[Fat Tony]

Bottom line is GREED.

The writers are greedy. They write something and they want to get paid for it. So they estimate how many people will pay for vs. how many people will pirate it. Problem is they are always wrong.

The Pirates (me) are greedy. We don't want to pay $25 or more for a program that we can get free. Yes there is some work/risk involved in being a Pirate, but the benefit far out weigh the risks.

What can programmers do? Two things.

1: Include a 30 day trial with ALL programs.

2: Make your programs $10.00 each.

Piracy of your product will come to almost a complete stop and you'll make a lot more money.

If it's free for 30 days, we're all going to download it FROM YOU not from our download/warez site to see if we like it or not.

After the trial is over if we really like the program we'll buy it. I'd rather pay ten bucks for a program then hack/crack a program and I'm sure most people would rather pay then Pirate.

A year or so back, there was a download site that charged five bucks for any program you downloaded and they were all guaranteed to work. Very active site (not working any more) and he made a LOT of money. If the writers/programmers do the same thing, they'll make more money.

I wanted a fax program a year or two back and it was $45.00! I found it free and downloaded it and it worked. It wasn't that great, wasn't worth almost 50 bucks. I would have paid ten maybe twelve, never fifty.

Yar.

[wickedklown]

lol Fat Tony, as sick and twisted that logic may sound I think you make a good point. They (devs/dvd) can probably make a pretty penny competing against the spyware ridden software/ low quality theatre-camcorder recorded Divx movie.
Do they have to or should they? No, but unfortunately as unethical and illegal it may be its still a market whether you want to cry foul or not.

Look at the music industry. I for one was getting tired of paying $20 bucks for a CD w/ 2-3 good songs. Thx to the P2P crowd they were forced to go Ala Carte. Hell paying a buck for a good song is well worth it.

[Fat Tony]

Why has a movie ticket gone up to almost $13.00? They're not making enough money? They got greedy and now you see commercials before the movies and in the movie you paid to see, product placement everywhere. They're making tonz of money and yet they still raise the price. So what happens? Pirates take revenge.

If they cut back on their prices, a lot more people would come out to see a movie. I remember when we were kids, we'd see a movie 25 times and pay each time. Now days, kids can't afford that because everybody is too friggin greedy.

I remember being a kid and actualy purchasing a music cassette/dvd, instead of recording it off the radio because the quality was better and it wasn't so expensive. I have no clue how much a music CD costs because I'd rather pirate then pay an outrageous price for a fancy cover sheet.

[InvincibleLiving]

Oh no you had to let Fat Tony up in here! It's official I'm leaving the site! Things are about to get interesting round here....

[Hellion]

PIRACY wil never go away.... So not even worth trying to fight it, been there since the start and will be there till the end. I prefer donating $5-$10 depending if i really like the app. But apps for ppc over $20.... just horrible. I prefer to donate to the devs who are re-leasing as donationware/Homebrew that work 100%. And for those devs that charge for all upgrades even horribler!! ::::first one I actually donated to was that TriangleofPowers::::

[christinme7890]

hmm...i hate buying software that I know will never be upgraded. So many pieces of software out there that work for wm5. But, they don't work for wm6 and they don't plan on upgrading, but I plan on upgrading to wm6. If I spend money on a app i want to know that that app will be useful down the road. Not only that but pretty much every piece of software is not to everyone's standard and, of course, don't have much in the terms of making it suit my needs. Most software devs don't make their stuff full of editability. I made a word up but when I dl a app, it comes how the devs think it should be used, but that doesn't mean that how they intend me to use the app is how I want to use the app.

Also, with so many ppc out there, it is hard to make a software that works perfectly on every phone. For instance, I like Wisbar and tried it, but it is so buggy and sometimes slow which is not worth buying it.

Every software needs a trial as long as it is a timed trial and not a feature limit trial. The only software that I use is rltoday....very stable and fast, and I donated to the people that made it because it is worth it. When it comes to pocket pc apps, there are very little apps that I would actually use because they all use up a lot of memory and are slow. FAST on my phone is what I want.