theglobeandmail.com— Nearly half of Canadian students admit to using pirated software, even though the bulk also agree that the practice is unethical, a new industry survey indicated Monday.
Aug 8, 2005View in Crawl 4
I'm glad I pirate software sometimes, you got some programs that charge $25-$50 dollars for extra functionality and they are just plain crap when you see all the features. Bad software deserves to be pirated or be free.
How many students can afford software. Some vendors do a really good job with special pricing for software for students but if a student is going to have to choose between eating or paying for Microsoft Office, the difference is obvious. A lot of people I went to school with were on a tight budget and could not afford the software we required. I don't believe that anyone actually bought a copy of the software we used at school.
What's funnier is at my school (Canadian), professors widely acknowledge students scanning and copying textbooks, pirating the mathematical and graphical software, and openly discuss illegal Bittorrent usage with students.
"Microsoft deserves to be stolen from."No one DESERVES to be stolen from. How would you like it if everyone came to your house to steal stuff from you?
well stealing software is different then stealing something like a watch,the watch has materials that in it's self cost money like the metal that's used to make the gears and the the machinery that's used to stamp out the gears and such. Stealing software is more like stealing someones answers off a test, your not taking a physical thing you're just stealing someones effort, sure you need a computer to make the program but it could be written on a 5 year old Dell almost as easy as some computer with a high end processor and a terabyte of RAM.
1) in Canadian law it is the person who distributes the property/product that is breaking copyright laws, not the downloader.2) distribution is usually characterized as Mass Distribution(ie sharing a file 40+ times or for a protracted period).go to <a class="user" href="http://xe.com">http://xe.com</a> and check your currency against the Canadian Dollar. Add tariffs for goods crossing the border, and greater shipping costs because we are the world's second largest country with half the population of Britain. Remember we pay almost 60% of our wages to taxes (heathcare,pension,income tax,etc). Our minimum wage is 6 to 8 bucks Canadian, meaning 2.5 to 4 bucks an hour take home pay.the average new game is 60 to 80 bucks, before the GST/PST (Goods and Service tax/Prov Sales Tax) of about 13%. This would make it 68 to 90 bucks. Now if you are like a lot of people that live outside of urban centres there is shipping, a service, so there is GST on it weather it is a stamp or overnight.Now lets look at M$ Office. Many students require the full version, not the very light edu version with student extras, costs 650 to 750 bucks (735 to 848 bucks). If you can get buy with the small business version you are looking at 150 to 200 bucks.can you see why a Canadian student might use unlicensed software.
Most Canadians live in urban centres within 100 km of the US border.There are fewer and fewer tarriffs each year due to the implementation of NAFTA.Our tuition here is quite a bit lower than it is in most US schools (for University anyway) as a rule.So if our taxes are high (and they are only high relative to the US, not relative to any other Western country) it is ok to use warez then. I see.As our dollar has gained about 15 percent in the past 18 months, I wonder, has piracy decreased by a similar factor?Oh, there was the hockey lockout too, and plus it gets colder here, also excellent excuses to be a pirate.
ta_supermanAug 9, 2005
I'm glad I pirate software sometimes, you got some programs that charge $25-$50 dollars for extra functionality and they are just plain crap when you see all the features. Bad software deserves to be pirated or be free.
ender78Aug 9, 2005
How many students can afford software. Some vendors do a really good job with special pricing for software for students but if a student is going to have to choose between eating or paying for Microsoft Office, the difference is obvious. A lot of people I went to school with were on a tight budget and could not afford the software we required. I don't believe that anyone actually bought a copy of the software we used at school.
adamsAug 9, 2005
What's funnier is at my school (Canadian), professors widely acknowledge students scanning and copying textbooks, pirating the mathematical and graphical software, and openly discuss illegal Bittorrent usage with students.
twistymcgeeAug 9, 2005
"Microsoft deserves to be stolen from."No one DESERVES to be stolen from. How would you like it if everyone came to your house to steal stuff from you?
capn_crunchAug 9, 2005
well stealing software is different then stealing something like a watch,the watch has materials that in it's self cost money like the metal that's used to make the gears and the the machinery that's used to stamp out the gears and such. Stealing software is more like stealing someones answers off a test, your not taking a physical thing you're just stealing someones effort, sure you need a computer to make the program but it could be written on a 5 year old Dell almost as easy as some computer with a high end processor and a terabyte of RAM.
wolvenspectreAug 10, 2005
1) in Canadian law it is the person who distributes the property/product that is breaking copyright laws, not the downloader.2) distribution is usually characterized as Mass Distribution(ie sharing a file 40+ times or for a protracted period).go to <a class="user" href="http://xe.com">http://xe.com</a> and check your currency against the Canadian Dollar. Add tariffs for goods crossing the border, and greater shipping costs because we are the world's second largest country with half the population of Britain. Remember we pay almost 60% of our wages to taxes (heathcare,pension,income tax,etc). Our minimum wage is 6 to 8 bucks Canadian, meaning 2.5 to 4 bucks an hour take home pay.the average new game is 60 to 80 bucks, before the GST/PST (Goods and Service tax/Prov Sales Tax) of about 13%. This would make it 68 to 90 bucks. Now if you are like a lot of people that live outside of urban centres there is shipping, a service, so there is GST on it weather it is a stamp or overnight.Now lets look at M$ Office. Many students require the full version, not the very light edu version with student extras, costs 650 to 750 bucks (735 to 848 bucks). If you can get buy with the small business version you are looking at 150 to 200 bucks.can you see why a Canadian student might use unlicensed software.
dbrodbeckAug 12, 2005
Most Canadians live in urban centres within 100 km of the US border.There are fewer and fewer tarriffs each year due to the implementation of NAFTA.Our tuition here is quite a bit lower than it is in most US schools (for University anyway) as a rule.So if our taxes are high (and they are only high relative to the US, not relative to any other Western country) it is ok to use warez then. I see.As our dollar has gained about 15 percent in the past 18 months, I wonder, has piracy decreased by a similar factor?Oh, there was the hockey lockout too, and plus it gets colder here, also excellent excuses to be a pirate.