software piracy (was "Interactive and me")

[Raymond Nijssen]

In article <371 at icjapan.uucp> jimmy at denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) writes:
>In art. <1580 at redsox.bsw.com> campbell at redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell) writes:
>>[...] we sell a package [...] that sells, on average, for about 
>>$25,000...I never dreamed that anyone would actually try to steal a copy.
>>Well, I was wrong...Oddly, most of the problem was in Europe...and the 
>>attitudes about software property rights I encountered there were 
>>MUCH worse than in the U.S.
>
>I have encountered similar attitudes here in Japan.

I believe that's true. No doubt stealing such packages is quite unforgivable.
But consider the context, which is no excuse though. Let's just say it's a 
cause contributing to the attitude mentioned above:
- In Europe, you have to pay av. 2 times as much for one and the same
  package as in the US, sometimes even much more.
- If you live outside the US or Canada, you can just forget about support, yes,
  even if you bought the package. Toll free numbers (which you normally 
  implicitly payed for) are not reachable, collect-calls are hardly accepted, 
  and do you realize how much intercontinental calls cost?
- Local vendors can't help you either because they usually have very inderect
  contact with the producer of the package, and their level of expertise is 
  often way below what's acceptable.
- It's quite common that vendors abroad sell packages which are one or even
  more versions behind the latest version already sold in the US.
- Buying packages directly from the US is quite a risc. What if it doesn't
  work, what about warranty, will the updates ever arrive?....Bad luck!
As everybody knows, selling a package implies much more than dispatching
a box containing a number of floppies in return for a certain amount of
money. This holds for the world outside the US as well, but many producers are
inclined to forget this, thus indirectly stimulating software piracy.

>"We Japanese do not believe in paying for software."
Nobody feels like paying more than others for getting less than others.

-Raymond  ---  raymond at ele.tue.nl