Warez

HeXp£Øi±

HeXp£Øi±

Well-Known Member
I thought of an interesting way of describing the downloading of media without paying for it. Interestingly enough it comes from the bible.

Isaiah 3:15 uses the term "grinding the faces of the poor".

In my opinion this literally means grinding away the livelihood of the poor.

Example: Insider trading such as the recent martha Stewart scandal. It's a form of robbery only much more discrete than ordinary thievery so that it definetely affects people but in more of a round about way.
This would be a grinding away of ones livelihood.

I kind of see Warez in the same way only rather than the rich doing this to the poor it's the other way around.

What you you think of this analagy?
 
I don't know Hex, I like the insider trading analogy. Enron, Ms. Stewart and their ilk really make my blood boil. My brother-in-law worked for Worldcom until a few months ago. Now, he doesn't have a job, his retirement and stock options are worthless and he has to start all over.
The warez thing, I'm not so sure about. I know lots of people who use it, but to me it's still stealing. I'm not sure that's what you mean, though. I'd have to say I have mixed feelings.
 
Justify? Did you even read my post? I wasn't justifying anything. I was attempting to describe it. I don't deny for a second that it's wrong.
 
My appologies. I read it as you making out that warez was in some way the little guy getting back at the big bad corps for dirty dealing that cut the little guy off short.
 
switched to linux, i still don't pay for software but now i'm legal, actually I'll pay for games, but not until I can get them for <$20. I won't knock warez because almost all of my windows software used to be on green cds. now i'm happy that i'm legit, less liability to worry about and I find I'm more willing to donate to free software projects that I find useful than I ever was to pay for software.

One of my biggest problems with paying for software, specifically windows or office, is that it is made available for very little to some people while others are expected to pay full price for it. I have real copies of Windows/OfficeXP collecting dust around here somewhere. Both were purchased through educational agreements and I think I paid a combined $11 for them. I know there is a lot of legal gibberish behind cheap software for students that i don't care to understand, but it almost seems like discrimination. When I was able to pay peanuts for software that would cost joe on the street in upwards of $1000, I realize the true value of software to its makers and it makes me sick to think of the price gouging that goes on.
 
perhaps i'm cynical but it feels like deliberate marketing rather than doing teh poor student a favour. they full well that once using the product they'll be worried about not being able to access files etc
 
That legal gibberish is what let WordPerfect steal the market from it's main competition, Wordstar. Wordstar sold to all the offices, Wordperfect sold to all the schools. Using educational licensing. So all the students learned WP at school, and had educational copies at home. When they hit the workforce, whaddya think happened? Damn right. The managers were faced with either retraining at their own cost, or changing to commercial licensed WP. Wordstar was outmanuvered, and outta the market, despite being a far supperior product.
 
funny thing, while i was eating we were discussing about piracy. I do get illegal stuff mainly 'cause i can't afford to pay for the original and before anyone call me stingy let me tell you that our currency is far from those of the 1st world countries, food is cheap but technology is very expensive for us.

Last year, an single cd was well over US$25, that's just too much for me to pay for a few songs, and anyway i buy a cd get home and rip it and then the cd serves as dust collector, to hell with buying them, i rather download the music, i think many people felt that way too, sales drop, many stores broke, and now they are back to a more reasonable price ranging from 9 to 15 per cd.

As for software, completely out of reach, we don't get the "educational licenses" at the prices you get, a single visual c++ educational is well over 300, the clear answer is piracy.
 
tommyj27 said:
I have real copies of Windows/OfficeXP collecting dust around here somewhere. Both were purchased through educational agreements and I think I paid a combined $11 for them.
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Most companies blame 3rd world countries for the piracy, but i'll be damn if i ever get an original office license for that price. They stick the office license at about 300 no matter who you are.
 
Luis G said:
Most companies blame 3rd world countries for the piracy, but i'll be damn if i ever get an original office license for that price. They stick the office license at about 300 no matter who you are.
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exactly my point, i'm sure marketing has a big part to do with educational licensing, ask big tobacco about that strategy. But these agreements are so selective I have to wonder. Many schools have no such agreements, for some, discounted means $90 for WinXPpro, for some it's 5. A friend of mine goes to Indiana State, at his orientation before starting everyone got a wallet full of software including a full copy of office XP. Granted, some of it has to do with how much individual schools subsidize the cost to students but that doesn't detract from the fact that some people like Luis are forced to pay through the nose and play by the rules, aquire software by illegitimate means, or be stuck in a reciprocating cycle of technological ignorance. On the other end of the spectrum, M$ combined with the BSA selectively fuck over whoever they want, finding accounting errors or other mistakes in otherwise honest shops and using it to lock them into restrictive and unfair licensing agreements.
 
i never used it except for the dos version. looks like i've come full circle since i like starring at a command line all day again :D
 
If things didn't cost so goddamn much, there wouldn't be a reason to pirate them, would there?
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And if you didn't pirate so much, things wouldn't be so expensive, would it?


Luis, are you justifying theft?

The people that MAKE the software does have every right to sell it at whatever price they want. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. If no one buys it, they would lower their prices. High prices is no, NO justification for theft. I would like a $50,000 plasma TV, but I don't go about justifying stealing one from a store because "the price is too high." :eh:
 
I don't know, I can see both sides of this. The reason software costs so much is they know that companies will pay it. A company can afford to pay 300 for a software package that saves them thousands, but it's hard for an individual to justify paying 300 for a piece of software they are using for mostly leisure. The educational discounts are misleading too, some would think the software company is being generous, while the real reason is more likely in line to Profs, they're just getting us hooked. It's the same as that first free rock of crack.

On the other hand, you are right about one thing, if we didn't buy it, it wouldn't cost so much, but you know what? If we don't buy it, the corporations still would, and it would still cost just as much.
 
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