how-to block ads
|
|
Share Topic
 |
 |
|
|
| reply to AbBaZaBbA
Re: i guess they realize said by "":
that when they have the lawmakers as the lawbreakers they've got a problem.
Indeed. And that "problem" is caused by powerful multi-national 1st-world corporations, hell-bent on exploiting the rest of the world for profit, firstly by using their people as cheap labor, to avoid paying 1st-world skilled-labor costs, and secondly, by still attempting to sell their goods into those countries at 1st-world prices.
It simply doesn't work.
"Piracy", or rather, intellectual-property infringement, is a normal feature of a healthy free market. The problem with too high a percentage of "piracy" versus legitimate sales of goods, are caused by unrealistic and inflexible prices set by those sellers of goods.
What these companies need to do, is simply lower their prices, in order to compete.
But they don't want to do that, because that would make their whole "outsourcing" scheme back-fire, because then 1st-world consumers, will start importing those same goods being sold at 3rd-world prices, in order to lower *their* costs (of goods). Effectively, they are taking advantage of the benefits of "outsourcing" and "globalization" too, as consumers. But this would tend to naturally counter-act the labor cost benefits that companies obtain, thus leading the worldwide economic system towards equilibrium again.
There are only two outcomes - companies reduce their level of greed, and realize that such practices are unsustainable in the long term, and start paying reasonable wages for labor, as well as selling goods for reasonable prices (accepting "market equilibrium"), or further push for draconian legislation worldwide, that effectively turns everyone into slaves - eventually resulting in wars and chaos (forced slavery, world-wide laborers forced to live and purchase goods at what is effectively the "company store"). The current path being taken (DRM, etc., and further restrictions on rights of citizens) - does not look too promising. It's time to WAKE UP, both people and companies alike. Remember, companies are made up of people too. | | |
|
| Oh, and the BSA are nothing more than well-paid liars. From the linked article:
quote:
"They can't force developing countries like us to solely use legal software since we can't afford it. They want us to gradually reduce our use of it."
quote:
It said the losses due to counterfeit programs amounted to almost US$8bn. ... The problem is particularly acute in Indonesia. Counterfeit software makes up 87% of software on the market in Indonesia, according to BSA figures.
If the question is not one of whether or not the assumed "purchasers" made a choice whether or not to pay the asking price for the "legitimate" version of the software, but whether they simply CANNOT AFFORD to pay that price - then the BSA's claims of "losses" simply cannot be true. There never would have been that number of legitimate sales, at that price, anyways.
But at least with "piracy", those particular "popular" products gain market-share and awareness within those markets. I'm sure that MS (secretly) is very glad that Windows and Office are being "pirated", rather than Indonesians simply all switching to a Linux-based solution for their computing needs.
Think of it this way - if your computer's operating-system software, cost you as much as half a year's normal wages, would you pay that? Especially if you could easily purchase an "alternative" copy, for not more than a few hours' worth of wages?
At least in first-world numbers, that would be akin to MS choosing to charge something like $50,000 US dollars for a copy of Windows XP. Would *you* pay that much? And if you couldn't, then would you choose to pirate it, if it was de-facto required, to communicate with your friends and associates living in other countries, and to have business-to-business communications with other commercial companies (at work)? And if so, then would the BSA really be justified in claiming "billions and billions" (to quote the late Carl Sagan) dollars worth of lost sales? Perhaps the *true* reason that the sales were "lost", was simply because the prices were too high in the first place.
Greed has "unfortunate" side-effects now doesn't it? | |
| reply to time to choose
Whomever you are I would like to applaud your point of view and attitude on the direction of this situation and more peeople need to realize it starts with each person having the guts to say no to a corporate raiding economy! Tough huh? Especially like you said these corporations are made up of people too! | |
|
