The UK's software piracy rate has fallen for the first time in three years – but only by a single percentage point. Unlicensed or illegally-obtained programs accounted for 26 per cent of national market in 2007. Software piracy cost the UK £925m last year, according to the Business Software Alliance. “It’s encouraging that we’re making progress in the battle against software piracy. However, there’s a huge amount yet to be done,” said Julie Strawson, chairwoman of the BSA UK Member Committee.
“The fact remains that an unacceptable level of UK organisations still flout software licensing regulations. By using software illegally, businesses are undermining the software industry – a massive revenue generator for the UK – and also putting themselves at risk of losing data and incurring both financial penalties and serious damage to reputation.” The UK's performance was measured as part of an annual study conducted by analyst IDC on behalf of the BSA, investigating the software used in 108 nations around the world.
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“The fact remains that an unacceptable level of UK organisations still flout software licensing regulations. By using software illegally, businesses are undermining the software industry – a massive revenue generator for the UK – and also putting themselves at risk of losing data and incurring both financial penalties and serious damage to reputation.” The UK's performance was measured as part of an annual study conducted by analyst IDC on behalf of the BSA, investigating the software used in 108 nations around the world.
View: The full story @ vnunet
I could understand if it was your DVD pirates selling bootlegs in pubs and stuff, then it's easy to say that every £1 they make is a £1 loss to the industry, but in the case of software piracy where the download essentially costs nothing, how do they measure the real loss?
This is a false logic. Pirating software is no different than stealing a candy bar. You steal a candy bar, the store loses one candy bar, one sale. That's measurable because the thief has gained a candy bar for free. In the case of software piracy, the pirates have acquired (stolen) a copy of the software for free and the company has lost that sale. The company has received no compensation for the costs to produce that product.
The idea that a pirate wouldn't have otherwise bought the software is irrelevant. Some people try to steal a candy bar because they couldn't have otherwise afforded it. Others do it for the rush to see if they get caught. In either case it is a loss to the store just as a software company receives no compensation for pirates who steal their software.
The numbers are not made up but nice to see you trying to make the guilty look a little more innocent there Foub
If I steal it, they get $0
If I don't buy it, they get $0
If they sue me for a million dollars, they STILL get $0 (because they'll never collect).
The difference between copyright infringement and theft is that there is no material item that has been lost by the producer of the content. If you steal a DVD in a shop ciompared to downloading it for free - the difference is: the producer has incurred a cost of producing that one DVD in the shop and hence has lost money (equivalent to the cost of production of the DVD). While copying it hasn't caused any direct loss in money to the producer.
Stealing from a shop does cause a loss in equal to the production cost (not the sale price however). Therefore if a DVD costs $10 to the shop then they loose $10 (the shop not the producer however).
So...
steal from a shop = shop looses $10 no matter whether they would have bought it or not... this could be a loss greater than the profit if it had sold. If the DVD cost $15 in the shop the company would have only made $5 profit if it had sold, however they have not lost $5 they have lost $10. If it cost $25 for the DVD then arguably they could have lost $15 if the sale had occured instead, but still they have lost at least $10.
download/copy = no company looses any money - unless the consumer would have bought the product if they were unable to copy it.
There is a huge difference. Dont say its the same thing. The defition of theft (in most countries I believe) is the intention to deprive another of something material. If it was the same it would be the same thing under law.
This is a false logic. Pirating software is no different than stealing a candy bar. You steal a candy bar, the store loses one candy bar, one sale. That's measurable because the thief has gained a candy bar for free. In the case of software piracy, the pirates have acquired (stolen) a copy of the software for free and the company has lost that sale. The company has received no compensation for the costs to produce that product.
The idea that a pirate wouldn't have otherwise bought the software is irrelevant. Some people try to steal a candy bar because they couldn't have otherwise afforded it. Others do it for the rush to see if they get caught. In either case it is a loss to the store just as a software company receives no compensation for pirates who steal their software.
The numbers are not made up but nice to see you trying to make the guilty look a little more innocent there Foub
plastikaa pretty much summed it up, but I want to clarify something: My intention was never to make the guilty look innocent or anything of the sort, I was merely questioning these figures and how they produce them. I was hoping for a genuine response as to how they're measured, where they come from, etc.
You can't argue that every single pirated product is a lost sale, that's false logic (as you put it) for a whole host of reasons. Price is only one factor, but how about people who pirate software just to try it? It's not unusual for people to pirate a few pieces of software that do the same thing before settling on one in particular, so how many sales have been lost there, really?
What about kids in the age group of say 12-15 who pirate Photoshop to learn how to use it, they've absolutely NO way of being able to afford that piece of software, so does that count as a loss in sale?
I'm not saying ALL piracy doesn't count as a loss in sales, not at all, what I AM saying is that not every download is a loss in sale and I see no evidence that they account for that, or anything similar.
Basically, there's a number of ways you could calculate lost sales and I'm wondering what they actually do. Your opinion (and mine for that matter) is irrelevant because that's not what I am asking at all.
This is a false logic. Pirating software is no different than stealing a candy bar. You steal a candy bar, the store loses one candy bar, one sale. That's measurable because the thief has gained a candy bar for free. In the case of software piracy, the pirates have acquired (stolen) a copy of the software for free and the company has lost that sale. The company has received no compensation for the costs to produce that product.
The idea that a pirate wouldn't have otherwise bought the software is irrelevant. Some people try to steal a candy bar because they couldn't have otherwise afforded it. Others do it for the rush to see if they get caught. In either case it is a loss to the store just as a software company receives no compensation for pirates who steal their software.
The numbers are not made up but nice to see you trying to make the guilty look a little more innocent there Foub
Are you serious? there is a cost associated with an additional piece of candy, however there's no cost for copied/pirated software for the company making it because it's an intangible product. And it is true that many people who pirate software would not buy it either way so there's not as many lost sales as companies argue. The numbers are definitely bloated.
This is a false logic. Pirating software is no different than stealing a candy bar. You steal a candy bar, the store loses one candy bar, one sale. That's measurable because the thief has gained a candy bar for free. In the case of software piracy, the pirates have acquired (stolen) a copy of the software for free and the company has lost that sale. The company has received no compensation for the costs to produce that product.
The idea that a pirate wouldn't have otherwise bought the software is irrelevant. Some people try to steal a candy bar because they couldn't have otherwise afforded it. Others do it for the rush to see if they get caught. In either case it is a loss to the store just as a software company receives no compensation for pirates who steal their software.
The numbers are not made up but nice to see you trying to make the guilty look a little more innocent there Foub
It actually isn't the same as stealing a candy bar since nothing physical has been taken. You would have a point if the CD itself were stolen as well. It costs nothing to digitally copy something. One copy costs the very same as a billion copies done this way.
Also, there have been studies done that have proven that downloading alone doesn't affect sales. You are showing your ignorance in this.
False logic? Look who's talking.......
As someone pointed out stealing a candy bar is not the same thing no materiel item has been lost hence stealing is not the same as copyright infringement.
I'm not saying ALL piracy doesn't count as a loss in sales, not at all, what I AM saying is that not every download is a loss in sale and I see no evidence that they account for that, or anything similar.
Basically, there's a number of ways you could calculate lost sales and I'm wondering what they actually do. Your opinion (and mine for that matter) is irrelevant because that's not what I am asking at all.
Most of the figures are made up. When Windows XP came out I had a pirate copy and found it such an improvement over Windows 98 ( even with the BSODs inherent to SP0 I coudlent just press escape from ) that I went out and brought it. Which category to I come under?
Windows Aside quite a few bits of software I have trialled I have only purchased because I have used it in full without limitation for a few months before deciding it was worth the money and could afford it.
Tools that are only say $30 that offer a trial and then say limit what you can do to 15s are usually the first ones that I will go hunting a keygen for. If I use it more than a few times and think I can see a mainstream use for it I will buy it.
Just wanted you to know that our study measures the retail value of pirated software, so by definition, these losses represent real revenues forgone. While it’s true that not every piece of pirated software would be replaced immediately with licensed software if piracy rates went down, the evidence suggests that all pirated software will be replaced with legitimate software over time, because people need good software.
A lower piracy rate can also lead to greater competition in the software industry. What I mean is - lower piracy spurs more companies to enter the market and develop and sell a wider variety of software at a variety of price points. Higher piracy deters competition.
So, basically, piracy really does cause significant losses for the industry and the wider economy; these are real losses; and the IDC study is the best approximation we have of the magnitude of these losses.
Diane Smiroldo, Business Software Alliance
1. Most people who have converted their record collections to CD have completed doing so.
2. Young people have less disposable income now.
3. Much of what is produced now is crap.
As for software, while much of it may have better graphics and the like, it is still not very good otherwise.
Thanks.
James Rose
New York City
This is why, prices for software will go up, not down, to recover costs lost by these pirates. Courtesy to belief, they will NOT drop prices until piracy decrease. The more people pirate software, the higher legit customers have to pay for software.
This occurs exactly the same in "physical" stores. Due to theft, or robbery, they can raise product costs to cover the damage or lost sales caused by the offenders, in this case, the legitimate customers are the ones that have to pay more than they wanted.
And the industry lost almost a billion pounds? Really? Every other industry knows where their money is going when they lose it. This would be like a radio station announcing that 50,000 people didn't listen to their station last year, so they lost $10,000 in ad revenue.
The biggest problem with these "statistics" is that anyone who is involved with data analysing knows you can skew it anyway you want - and also know that you could argue...
Software producers work on the assumption that some of their software is pirated (if they dont then they are ignorant). As they are fully aware of this fact, they produce the product with actual sale figures in mind (ignoring pirated copies as this doesnt bring in their actual profit). Therefore they do not loose money in anyway whatsoever presuming those who were presumed not to be pirates do not then become pirates. This understanding that some copies will be made of their software means they adjust their input to the product is relation to the actual sale figures.
No-one could sensibly argue....
One year 26% of a product is pirated, the producer presumes these will all become sales next year so they increase their investment in production by an equivalnet amount. To then be shocked later and to have lost money as still 26% is being pirated.
Realistically....
The producer looks at the pirating levels and presumes these are not sales - hence they dont rely on these sales, and so their investment is related to the actual sales that are predicted.
So...
As long as pirating levels don't increase the companies argueably dont loose anything
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