Thoughts for: Wednesday 19th April 2006
Yarr! I downloaded me parrot! :: [20:58:11]I read an article last week about the apparent damage that pirating is doing to the software community. Clearly whoever wrote said article doesn't have English as their first language because if they did then they would have used the word imaginary in place of apparent. We will forgive them this oversight and refrain from pointing out any other mistakes they made. Afterall this is my website, about my views, my opinions, etc. Despite this, I am going to refer back to the article I read last week at various points as I believe it expresses the views of a large number of people (I don't have the link anymore, sorry). The article made the point of stating some nice figures and big numbers which apparently suggest that software companies are in major trouble because of people illegally obtaining their products. The author of said article then postulated that most of the population illegally obtain software in one manner or another. I will concede this point and agree that the majority of the population probably does obtain software and data in an illegal manner which presumably violates all those copyright and licensing agreements that no one can ever be bothered to read. The author then goes on to suggest that the same people which do this theft would not do the same thing in say a supermarket or some other place with physical goods. The argument being that because software has no physical component we do not see the harm in it as our taking it (or rather copying it) does not create a physical loss in any other individual (although the industry would argue there is a loss in their pockets). This is probably a very valid point. I doubt many people would be as eager to steal from a shop. Then again, I doubt many shops charge a markup on the product of about 1000%. Exaggerating? I think not. Look it up, do the research? Too lazy? Guess you will have to take my word for it. If you consider that a CD takes mere pennies to manufacture then you consider the price of packaging (again mere pennies) and the cost of encoding data onto a disc and of course shipping, advertising, software development, etc etc. What figure do you come to? Well, before you finalise that figure, realise that there are going to be millions and millions of copies of that product being sold. Once you do the maths I bet your going to come to pretty much the same conclusion as me. You are being ripped off. Totally, utterly. Hell you might as well just bend over and nicely plead for them to use lube afterall they are going to arse rape you anyway. The companies who make software can and do charge whatever the freaking hell they feel like. Way more than is justified. How much will a new computer game cost you? £40? £35? Probably along those lines. How much do you reckon it actually cost to make? I wont insult you by telling you my estimates. I'm pretty sure if I walked into a shop and saw a £20 bag of crisps I would say no. So there is an obvious point to be made here. If you don't want to pay the price then you don't buy the product.
I'm going to make my point about all of this so very very simple that even Darren will be able to follow it. Pirating software is stealing. It is. Plain and simple. However, if you go into a shop and buy a piece of software; well hell, is your arse sore? One would imagine it would be after a fucking like that. Steal or be stolen from seems to come to mind. Highway robbery is well and truly alive my friends. The software companies complain they are out millions of pounds of profits from people stealing their software. Well here's a little hint for you guys out there in the world of big business. Listening closely? Good. Maybe if you charged a reasonable price for it, people would BUY it. I better start a new paragraph to give that time to sink in and for all those money hungry bastards to wait for their hearts to start again.
Business 101 people. Charge a sensible price and people will buy your shit. Oh and while I have my business hat on (it's a nice hat) I think I will point out that maybe you should stop having a torrent of pure and unadulterated bullshit come out of your mouth. How about we take a stroll over to my Computer Game shelf. My, what's this? 3 different games all of which under specifications say they will play on my system. None of them do. Fancy that. You know I do believe that is what's called a blatant lie and I know for a fact I'm not the only person with that problem. So like I said earlier the average price of a computer game these days (PC) is about £35-40, OK, so hands up, who wants to pay £40 to a company for something which cost them pennies, under the understanding that when you get it home you can play it, only when you get it home it wont play? No one? Big fucking surprise. The amusing part of this is of course that it's a PC game so if you take it back to the shop the guy says "well that's not our problem, we cannot refund it" and to be fair they warn you of that when you buy the game. So how come trading standards doesn't nail these guys to the wall with a big stamp that says "hell no"? I dunno, wish I did, maybe one day they will. Oh no wait, that would be sensible, duh, sorry, I have these crazy ideas sometimes.
So let's think about this? £40 for a game that says it will work but possibly will not (It happens too often these days for anyone to consider buying any game safe) or download it for free and if it does work you will buy it real from the shop when the price becomes sensible. That's what a lot of people do. Sounds reasonable to me. Don't agree? Fine, e-mail me, message me, whatever, tell me why, I honestly want to hear why.
Of course when I refer to software I'm not just talking about computer games, I'm talking about any and everything on a computer, but the same principle applies. If it was priced sensibly people would buy it. Your average member of the public doesn't like the idea of being ripped off and as such will often seek alternatives. Consider it a form of boycott if you wish. What was that whining voice in the back? Coders work hard? I know that. I've seen enough of it, and from my own lack of ability to code anything outside of a mod' or basic program (with the aid of a large book) I know what it takes and how much work goes in. I also know that even taking into account this hard work and the wages of the talented people behind software that the markup is too high. Coders are only payed a fraction of the total pricetag consumers see on the shelves. Corporations want to stop pirating? They an start with sensible price tags.
And that as they say, is that.
:: [20:16:37]Then never run a DirectDraw test. It will probably kill you. Seriously.