The Pirated Software Problem in the 3rd World 252
RockDoctor writes "Dark Reading carries an article by one Nathan Spande who works in Cambodia. Locally he finds that OpenOffice.Org and MS Office are the same price ($2), or $7-20 by downloading. He discusses why the economics of OpenSource don't work in this environment, and how it contributes to global computer security issues through the "little extras" (trojans, spambots and other malware) that typically accompany such "local editions" of software. The economics of software outside the west are very different to what most people are used to."
Nice Suttle FUD in the article. (Score:3, Informative)
I love how the article has BSA FUD stuck in to add that little flair of "security problems".
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I can quite imagine one of those vendors wanting to operate a spam network on the side.
I'm in Thailand, and I assume the situation is pretty similar. Copies of new release software go for about the same price here anyhow. What you're saying is possible, sure, but I think pretty rare. The guys who sell this stuff are just not that sophisticated - they download it all from the net and burn the CDs on a handful of PCs. Some places burn the CDs on demand - you have to wait 10 minutes for an unlabeled disk w
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Parent is wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
10 years ago Buenos Aires was in the same situation as described in TFA, and the pirated software sold in stores was mostly clean. I know there was no market for zombie machines, but there were lots of (very good) viruses around. Selling infected software would hurt sales REALLY BAD. Especially since it would only take a seasoned pirate, hacker or technician to notice (and the latest antivirus was also available from most local pirates).
Most pirated software salesmen are interested in selling software, so they won't do anything to threaten their own income. The only thing some pirate shops would do is to add some intro/advertisement (and they were treated like scum for that). Most viruses came from diskettes from unknown sources.
More probably... (Score:4, Insightful)
(Just exactly the same as it happened for virus infected Ipods and similar players, which were infected because the XP machine on which they were tested as part of the development process was infected and droped virus on each tested ipod)
But that would happen nonetheless very seldom, because most of the software that is sold in this way is already downloaded in ISO form from the torrents and is directly burnt this way, and very few virus are able to injects themselves inside an ISO (althrough, a hacker could instruct remotely a trojanised PC to do so, and he would have the very obvious motivation you stated above). Very seldom are several different software unpacked, and all the SETUP.EXE from several different apps burnt together on a CD/DVD.
Most of the pirate CD you may find on those markets are produced by people genuinely interested in the fast money then can make with the small margins they have on the media they sell you.
(The complexity of managing and selling a botnet is beyond the interest in earning quickly 2$ for selling you a CD that costed them 0.02$ to burn)
The "All pirated spftware contain virus" is BSA propaganda. If you spend your whole time on "astalavista.box.sk", you may end up on some exploited web-page or downloading some trojan. But most of the pirated softwares you find in torrents are clean.
(My advice : switch to open source. You drop the whole stuff al together and get software that are both clean AND legal)
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IIRC there have been cases of "legitimate" software containing viruses. Thus it's possible that any pirated version originating from the same source. The ultimate irony would be if the "pirate" version had been cleaned in such a situation...
Pirates fix virus indeed. Botnet are from elsewher (Score:4, Interesting)
I've actually seen it done.
There are a lot of pirate groups that try to polish their release : at least put in some cheats or trainer, in case of games, up to completly re-write the installer for some edition of pirate XP.
Never the less, viruses on the pirated CD tend to be rare (never saw any on the few I've encountered in eastern europe a few years ago).
I think the problems that TFA's author is complaining about, mainly that some developing countries are filled with zombie botnets, is not as much due to the few rare virus-containing pirate CD, as it is from :
- Microsoft trying to detect and lock out pirate versions from updates. (And thus some holes - that aren't considered as absolutely critical and auto-downloaded in background - aren't patched)
- The technical skill to control virus infection isn't as common as in countries where computers are widespread.
- When your small 32 kbits ISDN / Analog line costs a significant part of your salary, you only get on-line for very short periods of time, just enough to send your mails (and the one with advertisement for p3n1s enhancements that the trojan on your computer wrote). *You* can't afford to stay hours online to download megabytes of patches (and your machine is vulnerable), whereas, because of the distributed nature of a botnet, it's perfectly OK for the spam busyness, if only 1 or 2 mails are sent per day. When you multiply by the size of the zombie-net, the total number of mails sent in a day is enough.
And given the poor security on Windows XP, this lack of hole patching is enough to turn a huge percentage of the computer population into zombies spitting each one it's three daily mails about "ch3ap f4rm4cy m3dZZ !!!".
As TFA's autor said, only ISP are in position to help.
By filtering computers' access to the net, they can help stop zombies sending spam.
And, although it's hard to spot on Zombie from the computer it-self (it only sends a few mails per day), it's possible to spot a part of bot-net from the ISP level (if a group of 1'000 clients suddenly all send almost the same single mail, maybe they're part of a bot net. Or replying to some successful stupid chain mail).
FUD in the article. (Score:5, Insightful)
You can imagine it. I can't. I live in Hong Kong, I've bought a lot of bootleg CDs here and in Thailand. Never, ever have any been infected with viruses.
It makes no economic sense. The vendors make a couple of dollars per disc. They'd make at best a few cents per spambot. (And spambots in Cambodia? Give me a break. They don't have the connectivity.) But once the word got round that thay were selling infected softweare, they'd lose all their sales. These are people selling from market stalls; they stick around in the same place for months usually. If they sell bad products, they lose. Customers demand refunds. I have a few times when a disc was bad; a lot less hassle from these guys than legit dealers..
Every time you read an article quoting the BSA and such groups about software piracy they make this claim. It's just FUD. Note this writer never said he found viruses on his software, just that he was afraid of it. That's the "F" in FUD.
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Actually, the editors trimmed off the second half of my submission, about how I'd brought some very capable software in Russia, and to my surprise it worked, was virus-free, and the online registration worked too. All for a $10/ 300Rb on-the-street price. (Abbyy Lingvo [abbyy.com], a multi-linu
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What about the schmoes who have to wait until the release has changed hands dozens of times before it hits a public site or the newsgroups?
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You're falling in the exact same trap as I pointed out to the grandparent. You don't know if it has already
Before you challenge someone (Score:3, Interesting)
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Of course, it is entirely possible that the pirate sellers add some extra nasty stuff to their warez, I wouldn't know, I've never bought software from pirates.
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Why viruses in 3rd world pirateware? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why would there be viruses and trojans in copied 3rd world CDs? The purpose of this renegade code is to collect passwords and account information and send it to a criminal organization that will use it to defraud the software user without their knowledge. But if someone is paying $2 for a copy of MS Office, then t
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Besides, your "nothing to steal" argument doesn't hold up. Just because they bought it for a couple of bucks doesn't mean they're broke. How many well-off American college kids who could afford to pay retail still download software, movies, and mp3s off the net?
No, you just are confused. (Score:2)
Did you actually read the article? Yes? Then notice how he says it is actually more expensive for him to download a program then to buy it. That is pure download. With the "modern" distribution method of bittorrent he is probably going to have to do some uploading. Wich is going to cost him even more.
So he is NOT going to get proper releases by proper groups who do it just for the thrill of it. HIS pirated software comes from pure and simple profit motivated criminals.
It is the difference between free sof
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I really love Ubuntu. I like being able to have something immediately functional right out of the box. With Windows I have to install a bunch of drivers and software since it ships with nothing. I can also actua
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Worth the money if you must have Windows software IMHO.
Way I look at it (Score:5, Insightful)
Both MS office and OpenOffice are available at the same price and with the same level of support (precisely none apart from what google'll provide you with).
I'm not quite sure why there's any kind of surprise about this information. In the western world where you have to pay for MSOffice and Open Office is free, MS Office is still winning - why you'd expect a different result in an environment MS Office is free, is beyond me.
In my humble opinion the best thing to increase the penetration of Open Office around the planet (along with linux and every other OSS product that competes with MS) would be if MS introduced a completely secure DRM system to ensure that not a single un-licensed copy of their software was unable to function anywhere on the planet - forcing those that couldn't afford it to switch to OSS.
Always amuses me when people here bitch about WGA, as it has the potential to be the greatest force in switching people to OSS.
WGA and other drm does not work with slow links (Score:4, Insightful)
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MS knows that piracy exists, but at the same time piracy creates a lot of well skilled users.
yup (Score:2)
My mum wants a word processor, I'd give her a pirate MSO as I know how to use it - and if she has any problems, I can help. If I can't help, she can buy a book to help (much easier for MSO than OO).
You've really got to applaud MS, they've simultaneously managed to make MSO ubiquitous whatever the depth of your pocket, whilst managing to derive a stonking great income from legit software.
Look at the oth
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Plus MS can consider pirating of their software as a marketing tool - an easy way to get to millions of people without investing anything.
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Ummm... isn't the idea behind marketing getting people to buy your product? If the end result is millions of thieves and few to no sales you're not going to stay in business very long.
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The short-term result is millions of people who pirated your software, the long term result is millions of people who will ultimately purchase your software. See also, Microsoft loses a little money from someone not purchasing the upgrade copy of Vista, but it comes right back to them when that person goes out and purchases a new machine with (guess what) Vista installed on it. So, at least in the case of Microsoft, pirating their software is a marketing tool - rather like a drug. The first hit is always f
Re:Way I look at it (Score:4, Insightful)
I also bet you believe we are winning the Iraq war, GW saved us from WMD's and the easter bunny is real as well.
Here are some major facts. Microsoft products have a earth sized avalanche more marketing than Open office does. If you go and ask 100 random people chances are that less than 3% will know what open office is. Hell they even get high schools and colleges to market it for them by offering "office suite classes" that are nothing more than a 10 week marketing class they get people to pay to go to( in college).
Do the same in businesses, survey 100 CEO's and CTO's less than 10% will know what Open office is. Business leasers also feed the marketing themselves.. Where is that powerpoint(tm) your excel(tm) or word(tm) file?
So by your logic, people are choosing Microsoft office because it is better while in reality most people do not even know a choice even exists.
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OpenOffice.org can produce files that are compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint brand software. I had a contract job where my boss used Excel, and she had no problem reading and printing .xls time sheets that I created with OOo Calc. If preserving formatting is more important than editable text, then OOo can print to PDF. But yes, you're right that OOo needs more promotion.
No, it can't (Score:2)
Oh, and OpenOffice does more than just print to pdf, it exports, which retains meta information (like the table of contents).
Oh that is bollocks (Score:3, Insightful)
CTOs know what OO is. If an enterprise CTO deployed OO and saved their company millions, they'd get a big gold star. The reason OO isn't deployed so widely is because if it were, stuff would 'stop working' and cost the company more.
Now you could argue (rightly) that there's nothing wrong with OO, but if you deploy it in an MS ecosystem (both your own systems and the stuff that'll come in
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This is basically a lame implied ad hominem argument. Don't listen to him! He believes in the easter bunny!
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Look at the want adds in your local newspaper. The posts on the library bulletin board. Visit your state employment office. Talk with those who work with the disabled. MS Office skills are marketable.
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Not exactly even. (Score:2)
(As already reported several times on
MS-Office has the advantage of brand recognition. Surely the percentage of people to whom "Windows", "Office" or "Word" means something is lower in those countries, but still significant.
So they're not exactly even.
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Oh, you were talking about not installing OS X on non-Apple hardware. As a hardware vendor, yes, Apple prevents you from using other hardware. But then, look at their marketshare as a hardware vendor, compared against others (
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http://www.openofficedotorg.com/ [openofficedotorg.com]
and
http://www.openofficeorgcom.org/ [openofficeorgcom.org]
Yayyyy! (Score:5, Funny)
Can somebody point me to the repository so I can include them in my projects?
"the economics of open source don't work..." (Score:5, Insightful)
From the information in the article, it appears that the economics of open source work much better than the economics of closed-source, proprietary software. The business model of OpenOffice.org is perfectly happy when local vendors sell their software at $2 per disk. The business model that Microsoft Office is based upon is violated when that happens.
Re:"the economics of open source don't work..." (Score:5, Insightful)
The "business model" of MS Office (as well as that of DRM'd music, for example) is based on attempting to engineer a way around this reality -- trying to create an economic perpetual motion machine.
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It would cost me about 20p to produce a CD copy of MS Office for someone. It cost MS millions of dollars to produce the first copy of MS Office.
That's the real issue here, and one that's not easily solved; the first copy of any major software application costs an incredible amount of money to produce. You either have to find people willing to work for free (and supply most of t
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Well then, there's no reason to produce proprietary software for consumers then, is there?
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Or you have whoever wants the software written or altered pay the full cost.
Something which works with a tertiary business model and dosn't work with a secondary business model.
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Well said. But there is another perspective on this: the economics of FOSS and the real economics of Microsoft share some things in common. Both are based on
How Microsoft Kills Competitors (Score:5, Insightful)
They tolerate piracy because it has benefits for them. If people are pirating MS software, they are learning how MS software works, and they aren't using competing software. They can catch up later and demand their money; by which time, they're betting, most people will already be so used to Microsoft that they will pay up rather than go for a cheaper / free alternative.
If MS clamped down on piracy right now, then people would switch to cheaper / free products in a heartbeat.
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Anyway, t
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You're forgetting about network effects.
More userbase (either paying or otherwise) means more documents created in Microsoft formats, more potential employees who are highly familiar with Microsoft software, etc. All these factors increase the incentive to use Microsoft software in the future, when piracy may no longer be an option -- as well as the incentive for other parties for whom piracy is not an option to use Micros
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Much the same applies to music and video piracy".
Anyway, the so-called "economics of open source" obviously won't apply in a region where none of the "economics" of software apply; as someone else mentioned it's really Microsoft's business model that falls apa
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They are here in the developed world by turning off automatic updates and further locking down their products while going after small businesses that aren't using officially licensed products.
Yet, no matter what, people are not going to switch en mass to the free alternatives because they aren't ready for the desktop, people aren't comfortable with them, and the interoperability (while better) still is
Re:How Microsoft Kills Competitors (Score:5, Interesting)
(Background: I live and work in what the UN classifies as a Least Developed Country. Everything I offer below is based on my experience here, building ICT capacity in this country and the region.)
The same thing is happening here. But when I brought this issue up in a national-level mailing list (to which the majority of IT professionals in this country are subscribed), the issue was treated as a technical one, not a moral or ethical issue. Put simply, the debate went only as far as how to stop WGA, but did not extend there. Pirated software is a fact of life here, and given that this country hasn't signed the Berne Conventions on Copyright yet, people have no compelling legal reason to change.
That said, geeks here know what FOSS is about, and they're very interested in it. I recently did a demo of XGL/Beryl, and everyone in the room was lusting after it. On the server side, people recognise that if you don't have Linux on your resume, you aren't competitive. So where the geeks are concerned, Linux is the New Frontier, and they really like it. It's quite interesting that there's a direct correlation between Internet access and interest in FOSS. It more or less parallels our experience in North America and western Europe.
And now, management are beginning to feel the pressure to move to FOSS. More on this below....
You're overestimating the problem. I can tell you from experience that some of what you say is true, but not nearly to the degree that you assume. Geeks here actually really like Linux, and they love to get a chance to use it. I'm working a lot of overtime here providing Linux training to the people who run the government's IT infrastructure. Their intention is to reduce their dependance on Microsoft specifically because of licensing and support issues.
See, a Microsoft rep arrived recently and shook the government down. That is to say, he threatened to require that the government pay full retail for all its licenses unless it came to some terms. In the end, an agreement was reached wherein the government pays a flat fee for access to a number of supported applications, and it is required to buy an OEM OS license with every new PC.
Moving some of the servers from 2003 is seen as a gimme; the planning for that is already under way. There is a recommendation in place to move all standard workstations to OO.o, with exemptions being given to those who specifically require Microsoft (i.e. those who run VBA-powered automation utilities, or who create very sophisticated documents whose compatibility cannot be guaranteed).
Just about every business in town either has or is planning to integrate non-MS software into their systems. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the biggest one is cost.
So Microsoft is driving people away using exactly the tactics described in the GP post, and people are moving away, but you're right to say that there are interoperability issues (no thanks to MS), and that there is some trepidation. It's just not as bad as you seem to think.
People are planning the transition, and they are content to do it in small, achievable steps. But they are moving to FOSS.
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There's also the matter of being pushed around by a bunch of foreigners, something that dosn't tend to go down too well with most national goverments. Especially where there has been some kind of "occupation" in the recent past. (That these foreigners are from what is most likely
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I stay in India and out here a Microsoft employee would be looked up to, a Google employee would be recognized and a RedHat employee would be given condescending looks for not having been "talented enough to get a job with MS"
how to spot a RedHat employee .. (Score:2)
How does one go about spotting RedHat employees in the street. What are the significent telltale markings ?
"was Re:How Microsoft Kills Competitors (Score:5, Interesting)
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The red fedora of course.
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If, by a magic way, no Microsoft product could be pirated tomorrow morning, by the end of the day usage of Linux would be at around 50% on the desktop.
The same applies to South America... (Score:5, Interesting)
What about Soviet Russia? (Score:2)
I'm curious to know what the opinions on this matter are from Slashdotters who happen to live in these developing countries where piracy is rampant. Anyone from such a country, please respond.
As an aside... (Score:2)
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for the love of ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Free Software is not, repeat NOT, about cost. It's about liberties that accompany the software. For instance, in these poorer countries they're free to choose the hardware/software combos that suit their budget and economy, and not what Redmond wants them to use.
It also gives them access to the formats and internal workings. Meaning local jobs supporting the tools [ports, language packs, addons] are possible organically without having to first sign your soul over to msft [or whomever].
Tom
Re:for the love of ... (Score:5, Insightful)
The poor DO NOT CARE about free-as-in-freedom. OpenOffice does not give them the chance for getting a job, MS Office does. So MS Office wins.
You can start thinking about free-as-in-freedom once your belly is full.
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The software in Combodia is not scarce, therefore it is almost like water or somthing very cheap there.
And now the only scarce thing for them is the job. I would never suprise people want to use MS office since the employers (may be they never heard about OpenOffice) would like to give offer to who know to use MS Office.
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If the message was more about "hey you can really do what you want with this" and not "hey it's cheaper than Windows lol!" they'd be better off.
Tom
Not Redmond, but vendors (Score:2, Interesting)
People barely can decide by themselves, mostly because if it's their first pc, they don't know anything about software so just try to get everything they could possibly need from start. If it's not their first pc, then all they know about software is what came with the first one, and ask for the
Small cars about freedom too (Score:2)
Small economic cars about freedom too, not costs. The freedom to use your hard earned money on other more important things. The freedom to not be a slave to the petrol tank. The freedom of your entire nation not to be slaves to the oil producing countries. Hell, even Bush gets this.
Want to count the number of SUV's on the road? and if you think the US is bad check europe, in a place like holland were american style SUV's are impractical (too big to fit), not needed because the journey time is shorter and f
good luck trying to stop that (Score:5, Informative)
Let's take the case of Bangladesh. We have about 150 million people here, although a large chunk of that figure aren't your potential customers.
Facts:
- All foreign-produced movie DVDs and audio CDs are pirated. Yes. All. You can't legally buy legit copies of this stuff there.
- All home / office use software is pirated, unless you're working for a top multinational company. Purchasing a computer implies that it would come loaded with whatever software you prefer.
- All games are pirated
The prices are astonishing. It costs about 1 USD for CDs, 2 USD for DVDs. It doesn't matter what's the content.
How do you promote any software when Adobe Photoshop is the default image editor? When a software developer can choose any tool he wants with zero licensing and distribution costs, guess which platform wins out.
People want the best software and want access to the latest music and movies. It's been very low priced since forever. I can't imagine how would anyone go about asking them to change their consumption habits.
No "piracy is theft" argument doesn't work here. People feel that they have the right to rip-off any foreign-produced stuff because those companies are profitable anyway.
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That's right. It all boils down to mentality. I live in a 3rd world country as well. I make enough to get by (it's downright pathetic by 1st world standards though). However, I always make it a point to pay for non-FOSS software I buy, even though, yes, I can get the disks for $1-2 or just download them off warez sites. Those I can't afford, I make an effort to look for a FOSS equivalent/alternative.
I also buy legit CDs and DVDs. If I can't afford someth
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In the LDC I live in, it's getting to be a crap-shoot on the server side, and just about every geek I know (and that's a large percentage - I'm secretary of a national IT society) has a liveCD in his/her CD pouch. People aren't ready to move to it wholesale, but they like what they see, and everyon
Broadcasting??? (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides putting it on the net, and distributing CDs, and USB driver, there's also the possibility of broadcasting it... A few minutes on a TV channel, either terrestrial or direct broadcast satellite, and you can transfer an entire CD. Just mux in some open source software into your DVB broadcast, perhaps only during times when the video can do with a lower bitrate, and some quite inexpensive equipment, that takes just one-time investment, can pick it up.
Also, in most of the underdeveloped parts of the world, I have to wonder if 802.11 isn't the perfect answer to all of this... Even if only a few people in all of the country can afford to download something, it may be able to be pushed to everyone else with 802.11 cards, through P2P apps such as Gnutella, (bittorrent is woefully inadequate here... and on unreliable networks in general).
And for the first open source program to be widely distributed through Asia with one of these methods... I nominate ClamWin.
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I wouldn't think so. It's just as likely no humans are watching the program to begin with.
2Mbps is probably 2/3rds of the entire channel bitrate, leaving very crappy looking commercials (they typically need a higher bitrate than regular programming, not the other way around).
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Yes, but not in the 3rd world... Don't expect them to have HD anything to begin with.
Well, he's partly right (Score:5, Informative)
It's the people who buy the latest best copy of Norton anti-virus...pirate...and never get a virus definitions update because they can't register their program. They think they are safe and protected, because they are running an antivirus program.
It's the people running pirate Windows and IE and Office with no updates or patches, because even if they can register them (and typically they can't), they don't have the bandwidth to download security updates.
And I'm not talking about mere individuals. I have observed the counterfeit Windows version message on the computers in hotels, and not a cheap ones, either. What else are the corporations supposed to do when legitimate software can't be had, and your English isn't good enough to make calling Microsoft to buy a license to legitimize your pirate copy a viable option?
How do I know all this? I, too, live in a third world country, specifically Thailand. I have looked for legitimate software. I have seen pirate software in major foreign-owned stores like Tesco and Carrefour, as well as in the well-known locales for pirate software like Chatuchak and Pantip.
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Even if one assumes that the owner of the establishment doesn't have
Not the first problem (Score:2, Flamebait)
For instance the wide spread lack of fresh water seems like a more relevant problem.
Microsoft will have to win, eventually (Score:5, Interesting)
I use Linux because it's a better environment for programming. They use Windows for free, because they play games (for free). The "because it's free" argument won't convince anyone to try Linux around here. It costs more to download a distro via dial-up, then to buy Windows for $2.
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First of all, I'm glad to find out there is another person from Moldova reading slashdot :-)
I cannot agree with this. Why do you exclude the possibility that they will switch to Linux? Taking into account the latest news about BSA and their checks that will soon encompass the offices in Moldova, many company leaders ask themselves what they will do if BSA knocks at their door. Several people asked me for advice
Really? (Score:2)
Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it is not a problem there at all. Pirated software is problem only in 1st World.
Revolution (Score:4, Insightful)
However, the resistance that piracy implies isn't sufficient. Free software (and other free knowledge) is a revolutionary concept that turns the base structure of the new information economy upside down. It allows everybody to share knowledge and self determine what they can and will do (as compared to accepting the limits imposed by "owned" knowledge...like accepting that powerpoint is the way a presentation should be made). This is much more important for the poor, especially in the third world, who do not have the capital to access source code and thus see how software (and the world) work.
When using closed source software, one is essentially giving up the possibility of determining how you communicate and think in relation to machines -- and other humans. Having spent the last several years in the third world studying this specific issue (in Ecuador), it is clear that the availability of commercial software for a dollar or two is very dangerous for those countries. Any country that doesn't have a policy of supporting Free software is essentially allowing Microsoft, etc. to determine how it thinks and produces. Big software companies have no problem with this, they know that they wouldn't be selling large quantities of their software in poor countries anyway. While they may care about the big markets (China), I think most of their complaints about software piracy in the third world aren't because they care about those areas, but because they want to make sure that Americans know that piracy is an evil thing that foreigners do.
Unfortunately, most third world governments are so pathetically corrupt/incompetent that they don't take the freedom of Free software seriously. Some recommendations would be making all government sponsored software open sourced, requiring all government documents to use open standards, making public universities use free software, etc. There are several governments working on this, but they are few and far between. It is too bad, because the third world can benefit even more from Free software than the first world can.
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Compared to the total number of professional programmers, the number who work on proprietary software for sale is pretty small. The vast majority of programmers work on custom software for internal use.
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That's a whole bunch of different questions, and you're trying to get at something that really isn't there.
First, companies contract programming firms for custom work all the time. That's normal, and it's nothing special. It works exactly the same as internal programming, completely separate from the issue of Free vs. Proprietary software.
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Why the hell do people keep bringing up communism?
How is an environment where every programmer is free to bid on every software project "communism"? Really, contrary to what you might here from Microsoft or Verizon, "capitalism" isn't a word that means "everything is controlled by a government enforced monopoly".
$2.00/day for 12 hours of work ?!? (Score:2, Insightful)
The great majority of the planet is no where near the US economy, or even better countries like Japan, South Korea, or Germany.
How is a business that pays its workers $2.00 US a day for 12 hours work supposed to buy Microsoft Vista in a $2000 computer?
A 486 with xubuntu [xubuntu.org] Linux running
enough power to keep records and communicate with the world by dial-up modem,
and that business might be the most wired business in town!
Not everybody can run out and buy a $500 iPhone with a $100 month phone plan (even if they c
Erm, most people? (Score:2)
Actually it's not clear to me that most people live in the West. Nor is it clear to me that one can characterise the "rest of the world" so simply. There are whole Linux distributions aimed at (and developed in) India and China. And for that matter there are places in the West where pirated software is common. There have even been slashdot stories about it as I recall, e.g. in parts Europe.
Correction to title (Score:2)
The problem isn't that of what you call "3rd World". Why would they have a problem? They are not producing that technology. Hell, their resources are robbed of them so fast, they don't have money to produce much of anything.
Now you know why Vista is so paranoid (Score:2)
And that's why Microsoft Vista is so paranoid, and insists on talking to the mothership in Redmond regularly. Microsoft is gradually going to shut this down. Once the hardware changes to require Vista, and the monitors change to require HDCP, they just have to wait for the old hardware to die off.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft benefits from piracy (Score:4, Funny)
Now that is a gread idea. I am along time Slackware user and have never looked back. I do remember windows 95 reatail version comeing with a great game called "Hover" It was lots of fun, and was probably one of the better things about win95.
If there was a version of Vista that came with a game called "Balmer" it would be exactly the sort of thing that would get me back on the windows platform. Just think you could play a Steve and run from floor to floor and building to build on the M$ campus thowing chairs at precived enemies. Just like in good old Duke Nukem 3d when you scored points he would chant something like "Hail to the king baby" only Steve could start saying something like "Developers Developers Developers..". It would be the greatest FPS game concept ever.
Re: (Score:2)
'At its worst, OOo Writer is an adequate alternative for Microsoft Word. Most of the time, it is a superior one [newsforge.com]', June 2005
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Makes me wonder, when the pirated stuff will be Office 2007 with the ribbon, will OpenOffice.org actually do a better job of simulating the business software (which will be old Office for a year or two unless it will be easy for non-first world businesses to pirate.) For what it's worth, put me down as preferring OpenOffice.org.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If I buy software in a shop for £100, I expect quality. I expect originals, because if I want copies, I can do that myself cheaper (why should I accept that a dishonest trader makes profit, when I could be dishonest just as easily myself and safe money). If I were to buy software from a market stall for £5, I expect copies and treat them very carefully.
The £100 is a certain percentage of my monthly incom