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Why is so much software cracked?

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f0dder:
One of the things I particularly hate about software companies is product activation - and it is becoming a growing issue even with small shareware companies.
-Carol Haynes
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Amen to that!

First off, product activation should be limited to applications that simply cannot function without being connected to the internet, or at least whose primary operation involves internet use. This could be HTTPDs or FTPDs. Online activation for anything else is plain wrong... I couldn't play HalfLife2 *single player* after moving to a new flat, because I had forgotten to set it to "offline mode", and it took a while before I could afford ADSL.

Then there's the issue of companies going bust - bye bye ability to use software / read ebooks. And it can be an issue even for large companies like Microsoft or Amazon, who says they'll keep their activation servers running for Product X in five years? Carol was obviously already bitten by that wrt. Amazon ebooks.

Yeah, we can afford all that and yet begrudge someone a fair profit for their product.
-Cpilot
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You STILL haven't gotten it, have you? :)

Cpilot:
You STILL haven't gotten it, have you?
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No I get it, basically the gist is if you decide it costs too much it's ok to steal it.
Your the one not "getting" it.

Carol Haynes:
Yeah, we can afford all that and yet begrudge someone a fair profit for their product.
-Cpilot
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You STILL haven't gotten it, have you? :)
-f0dder (May 31, 2006, 12:54 PM)
--- End quote ---

That's what I thought!

Let's try one more time ...

I grow vegetables - they are very good and VERY expensive. Will anybody buy them - bet your life they will! A handful of people with more money than sense will buy them because "xpensive is always best".

The rest of the world can't actually afford them so they don't -- result I don't make much money.

Now then - same veg - affordable price - how many people buy now  ... the world does and I become stinking rich on it!

I am not saying companies shouldn't make a healthy profit - I think I am actually saying that large companies like MS and Adobe should make more money ... and the way to do that is to make the product affordable to the man in the street. Then many more will buy it and you will make more profit. Yes they employ people - but the important thing is how much money they make, not how many CDs the press.

I am also not talking about people in poverty - but someone on average income and 2.4 kids has to think hard to justify spending $700 + $150 every year on upgrades to use Photoshop ... Reducing it to $100 + $50 per upgrade would mean far more people could buy the product easily - Adobe would be quids in - they wouldn't have to spend vast amounts of money on antipiracy but their overheads would be exactly the same ... hey presto everybody wins !!! How can that possibly be an invalid argument???

The only reason Adobe and MS charge so much is because they want their products to appeal to rich businessmen - and they like to have the prestige value of having the most expensive product on the market - not because the price is in anwya justified.

If CPilot thinks this is an invalid argument how about suggesting a realistic solution to the problem rather than just repeating that companies have the right to set fair prices? At the moment so many people world wide think that prices are so unfair that piracy is rampant. I don't agree with piracy but it is a fact of life - and this thread started asking the question why should this be.

f0dder:
You STILL haven't gotten it, have you?
--- End quote ---
No I get it, basically the gist is if you decide it costs too much it's ok to steal it.
Your the one not "getting" it.
-Cpilot (May 31, 2006, 01:06 PM)
--- End quote ---
That shows you really haven't gotten it.

I don't say it's okay to steal it. I say that a pricing model that allow different social groups to pay different amounts of money would eliminate some (much? little?) piracy, create bigger income for the companies, and allow users to be happy little campers because they don't need to resort to illegal means to get a piece of software.

Try actually reading what people post.

Cpilot:
If CPilot thinks this is an invalid argument how about suggesting a realistic solution to the problem rather than just repeating that companies have the right to set fair prices?
--- End quote ---
It's not up to me or you to suggest a "solution". The problem isn't  the pricing, the problem is the sense of entitlement that people have to own software that they can't afford.
If you can't afford it that's not the companies/individuals problem. They're interested in the demographics of those who can, not creating a social welfare software system.
The whole argument being advanced is a fallicy from the get go, that being "we are entitled to this software come hook or crook".
Basically it's a "how dare they price it beyond what I can/am willing to pay" and then using that argument as justification for piracy.

"Well people can't afford it so guess what? they steal it!!" Well I guess that just makes it OK then?
"Piracy is happening all the time". So that makes it the software vendors fault that people are stealing it. No one else has an obligation to be moral about it, because the software companies bring it on themselves.
"Well we're only talking about something intangible here,software it's not like stealing a car!".....huh? So plagiarism isn't like stealing either? After all they're only ideas.

Bunk.

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