So today is a little less about the facts of pirating; is it right or wrong, does it hurt the producer’s bottom line, or how it affects the economy. Today I want to look at a pirate. Someone I know who has agreed to let me look through their computer and talk about the pirated material they have. I just want to show a little insight into whom the pirate is and let the audience decide if the impact is significant knowing that this person is repeated possibly hundreds of thousands of times across the US. Below is a list of items currently being used (everything on their computer) by a single individual.
Windows 7 Ultimate $166
Adobe Acrobat Pro X $389
Adobe CS5 Extended $915
Alcohol 120 – Virtual drive software $55
Perrla – Formatting for Word $35
DVDFab – DVD/Blueray copying $124
Eset Smart Security A/V $40
Hallmark Card Studio (5 versions) $125
J. River Media Player $50
MS Office Pro $257
Norton Internet Security – Not installed $70
Quicktime Pro $30
Roxio Creator 2011 $63
System Mechanic Utilities $60
Winzip Pro $60
Several game titles (6 x $60) $360
55 Gb of music (approx. 15000 titles, most pirated)
2500+ ebooks
As can be seen from this one instance, there is approximately $2800 of pirated material on this one computer before figuring in the hundreds of dollars of music and possibly thousands of dollars of ebooks. Talking further to this individual, I was also made aware that many of these same software applications are present on multiple computers in their possession and they are in possession of approximately 250 copied movies.
My question to the readers is how much is ok if any, and how much are individuals such as
this impacting, good or bad, the particular industries?
Windows 7 Ultimate $166
Adobe Acrobat Pro X $389
Adobe CS5 Extended $915
Alcohol 120 – Virtual drive software $55
Perrla – Formatting for Word $35
DVDFab – DVD/Blueray copying $124
Eset Smart Security A/V $40
Hallmark Card Studio (5 versions) $125
J. River Media Player $50
MS Office Pro $257
Norton Internet Security – Not installed $70
Quicktime Pro $30
Roxio Creator 2011 $63
System Mechanic Utilities $60
Winzip Pro $60
Several game titles (6 x $60) $360
55 Gb of music (approx. 15000 titles, most pirated)
2500+ ebooks
As can be seen from this one instance, there is approximately $2800 of pirated material on this one computer before figuring in the hundreds of dollars of music and possibly thousands of dollars of ebooks. Talking further to this individual, I was also made aware that many of these same software applications are present on multiple computers in their possession and they are in possession of approximately 250 copied movies.
My question to the readers is how much is ok if any, and how much are individuals such as
this impacting, good or bad, the particular industries?
7 comments:
That seems like a lot of products. Most of the people I know have illegally downloaded at least one thing, and although it isn't right, its so easy and common that people might "steal" a product without even knowing that they have done so. Borrowing a friend's CD and putting the songs onto a hard drive or iPod isn't legal but unless you really think about the actions you might not consciously know that what you have done is wrong.
I always get a good laugh when I see that people have illegally downloaded security or virus protection software. I have no idea why you would trust it to protect your computer when it is downloaded from an unknown source.
I think we all know what piracy is, generally at least, but until there is more of an effort to block these actions I don't see piracy losing momentum.
To the extent that this individual seems to have taken it, it would appear that they are part of the pirating community that feel no need to pay for much of anything at all.
I can understand why some seek to pirate Microsoft's software, such as Office and their various Operating Systems, as well as the Adobe software, merely for the extreme price of the products.
As justinn stated above though, some pirating activity is done without the individual even realizing it such as with videos and audio with how accessible the content is on the Internet these days; and I would also have to agree that pirating anti-virus software is a rather poor decision with the amount of free options that are out there, some are even on par with Norton even surpassing it in some areas.
This is a bit extreme, i mean in the case of getting caught this would be a nice hefty sum to pay. There are many alternates available for many of the software's downloaded at John said. Instead of winzip you can use 7-zip which is free and is easier to use. But this is an extreme to which it was taken, but some blame should fall on companies for a student buying office with full functionality and not the student edition may cost 200+ and the windows operating systems are ridiculously expensive. if Microsoft wants to avoid this problem they should go the the route of Apple whose operating system is an affordable $30. No need to pirate is unless you as said above are of the pirating community who sees no need to pay for anything
Illegally downloading music, software, and other digital products is illegal. With pirating becoming such a major concern today, a certain level of action must be taken, but I do not know what that level should be. By people downloading these programs illegally, these particular industries are greatly affected. For example, the music industry is completely different today as a result of piracy. Artists are beginning to release songs for free while promoting a new album in hopes that you will actually go out and purchase their music when their actual album is released for sale.
Illegally downloading anything is just that, illegal. I believe that we all know of people that have illegally downloaded music and videos. In terms of the price they should pay I believe should depend on the amount of material that was downloaded illegally. The artists, directors, and writers should be compensated for all of their hard work.
I agree with most of the commens here and offer a possible explanation. Perhaps you have watched shows on tv like Hoarders that show the irrational habits of people that most of society would immediately label as crazy and wrong. Most would agree that there is a breakdown of the persons mental reasoning and that in the very least they need counselling. I think that perhaps the same thing might be the case here with this particular individual. It is not a matter of stealing or circumventing laws or ethics for this individual, but rather an uncontrolled need to accumulate digital stuff. I for one have been guilty of keeping personal files on my computer long after I knew they had served their useful purpose, but to delete seems so final and wasteful, especially if it was a school paper or project that I spent significant time and effort on preparing. I believe that the extreme cases of pirating and software/digital file theft is a condition that makes the act no more acceptable, but one that may require treatment to overcome as would be the case with OCD, hoarding, or paranoia.
While I understand the Illegality of downloading and peoples arguments for or against my take on it is that while the music companies themselves may suffer I would believe it makes little impact on the artists themselves because they would make the most of their money of actual performances, be it concerts, a slot in the grammys or what have you. I absolutely love when artists release free EPs or "mixtapes" for their fans.
Posted by JonEric Roman
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