techdirt.com— A company executive was quoted as saying, "If you're going to steal software, steal it from us." That pretty much says it all.
Mar 13, 2007View in Crawl 4
A bootlegged copy of MS Office (or Windows), or a copy of Linux or OpenOffice on a company PC is a gigantic red flag.If I got a job and they sat me in front of a copy of OpenOffice.org, I'd think "What? These people don't even have the money to spring for a real copy of MS Office? How long are they going to be able to afford to keep me on the payroll?"Oh, I'd use their crappy copy of OOo, all right. Long enough to keep my resume circulating to other employers, all the while hiding the fact from other companies that I'm stuck using OpenOffice.And companies who buy one copy of commercial software and install it on multiple PCs deserve to get busted, if only for falsely calling themselves "employers".I figure it's wrong to disrupt the lives of people who need to earn a livelihood by pretending to be a real employer, when you can't really run a business. Those temporary employees are better off finding a proper job.I cut my teeth on "borrowed" copies of commercial software. My employers provided training and experience. Now I go ahead and buy what I need, and that's the whole point. If I had wasted my time with a lot of now-defunct shareware, I would no longer even be able to have a PC, and would probably be living out of my car.
money has a lot to do with it. broke, unemployed, seeing ads wanting people "with MS Office experience" or "Photoshop Experience"?? and how do you afford to get that software if you can't even afford your rent? Sure, you could load up with Ubuntu and OpenOffice, but likely the person interviewing you would go "...huh? so you don't know how to use Outlook then?". I know a few people, who didn't do computers at college, who.. erm.. borrowed various packages, taught theirselves, got good jobs, and have since bought said packages, often by the dozen (for their office). Who lost out on them using the pirate copy? The software company didn't. The person's family didn't. Their future clients didn't. Digg me down, it won't make it any less true.of course, ripping off games is a different matter
"If I got a job and they sat me in front of a copy of OpenOffice.org, I'd think "What? These people don't even have the money to spring for a real copy of MS Office? How long are they going to be able to afford to keep me on the payroll?""And I would think... "Cool! They use OO just like me. No wonder they can afford to pay me. They're not pissing away hundreds of dollars on programs that there are FOSS solutions for."Besides... exactly what features does M$ Officer have that OO doesn't, and how often are they needed?
No. M$ has every right to prevent piracy. "Going after" them is an invasion of privacy. A crime far worse than the piracy.It's like condoning murder for the crime of jaywalking.
Actually, WGA is there to appease the courts, with it, Microsoft can show the courts that they are attempting to put a stop to piracy (even though they don't actually care if you do pirate their software), without it, the courts would be all onto them (as would the RIAA and MPAA) asking why they aren't doing anything to stop piracy of their software.
Yet more evidence that one end of Microsoft doesn't have a clue what the other is doing. How such a cluster-f**k of an operation makes so much money I really have no clue...
chingy1788Mar 13, 2007
I think only MS can take such a hit, they own most of the OS market anyways
technopunditMar 13, 2007
A bootlegged copy of MS Office (or Windows), or a copy of Linux or OpenOffice on a company PC is a gigantic red flag.If I got a job and they sat me in front of a copy of OpenOffice.org, I'd think "What? These people don't even have the money to spring for a real copy of MS Office? How long are they going to be able to afford to keep me on the payroll?"Oh, I'd use their crappy copy of OOo, all right. Long enough to keep my resume circulating to other employers, all the while hiding the fact from other companies that I'm stuck using OpenOffice.And companies who buy one copy of commercial software and install it on multiple PCs deserve to get busted, if only for falsely calling themselves "employers".I figure it's wrong to disrupt the lives of people who need to earn a livelihood by pretending to be a real employer, when you can't really run a business. Those temporary employees are better off finding a proper job.I cut my teeth on "borrowed" copies of commercial software. My employers provided training and experience. Now I go ahead and buy what I need, and that's the whole point. If I had wasted my time with a lot of now-defunct shareware, I would no longer even be able to have a PC, and would probably be living out of my car.
aliguanaMar 13, 2007
money has a lot to do with it. broke, unemployed, seeing ads wanting people "with MS Office experience" or "Photoshop Experience"?? and how do you afford to get that software if you can't even afford your rent? Sure, you could load up with Ubuntu and OpenOffice, but likely the person interviewing you would go "...huh? so you don't know how to use Outlook then?". I know a few people, who didn't do computers at college, who.. erm.. borrowed various packages, taught theirselves, got good jobs, and have since bought said packages, often by the dozen (for their office). Who lost out on them using the pirate copy? The software company didn't. The person's family didn't. Their future clients didn't. Digg me down, it won't make it any less true.of course, ripping off games is a different matter
rattelerMar 13, 2007
"If I got a job and they sat me in front of a copy of OpenOffice.org, I'd think "What? These people don't even have the money to spring for a real copy of MS Office? How long are they going to be able to afford to keep me on the payroll?""And I would think... "Cool! They use OO just like me. No wonder they can afford to pay me. They're not pissing away hundreds of dollars on programs that there are FOSS solutions for."Besides... exactly what features does M$ Officer have that OO doesn't, and how often are they needed?
rattelerMar 14, 2007
No. M$ has every right to prevent piracy. "Going after" them is an invasion of privacy. A crime far worse than the piracy.It's like condoning murder for the crime of jaywalking.
rattelerMar 14, 2007
LOL!!! I dugg you up for that one. I do freelance work, so it's not uncommon for me to be out of work, or to get jobs at odd little places.
ray73864Mar 14, 2007
Actually, WGA is there to appease the courts, with it, Microsoft can show the courts that they are attempting to put a stop to piracy (even though they don't actually care if you do pirate their software), without it, the courts would be all onto them (as would the RIAA and MPAA) asking why they aren't doing anything to stop piracy of their software.
svpirateMar 14, 2007
Yet more evidence that one end of Microsoft doesn't have a clue what the other is doing. How such a cluster-f**k of an operation makes so much money I really have no clue...
drakazzMar 17, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/microsoft/Does_Dell_really_hate_Microsoft">http://digg.com/microsoft/Does_Dell_really_hate_Microsoft</a> Yey for Linux!:)