What is Digg?92 Comments
- maninblac1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+69What the BSA doesn't realize is that practically 50% of the "value" of software pirated each year is the combination of windows and by the piracy of college students acquiring high-rolling software suites like Adobe, Maya, Cinema4d, 3dMax, etc.
Which are $2500, $7000, $3500, $3500 respectively in their retail versions.
But even adobe has looked the other way, going so far to say that the students don't have the skills to take advantage of the advance features of the suite, however when they acquire them and move into the work force, Adobe will be all they know and they will demand it of their employers. In this regard, adobe doesn't care much about piracy on it's suite from that class of users. Adobe only focuses on corporate piracy. - wired4u, on 10/11/2007, -3/+38I would check out Kevin Rose. I can even provide video of him confessing to software piracy. Now give me my check!
- kg4gyt, on 10/11/2007, -3/+35I had to go all the way to the article to make sure it wasn't Boy Scouts of America, turns out BSA is Business Software Alliance.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+27I bet not one person, EVER, gets the $1 million.
- wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -9/+31By the way, the number is 1-888-GESTAPO.
- abyss478, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19What are we in Vegas?! They even have a little payout table showing how much your "reward" would be. I personally think college students should be given the chance to use any software they want free of charge. Adobe has the right idea. My school even has an agreement with Microsoft and we can download Vista and tons of other ***** free cause they know if we learn how to use it and need it in the future, we will demand it from employers
- DigitAl56K, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15I hereby snitch on China. Now give me my bajillion dollars!
- sockpuppets, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15The MPAA should offer 50 million for AXXO while we're at it, that guy is legend.
- LMaxey, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13Snitches get stitches
- _skin_, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10I would tell on myself for a million bucks.
- nihility, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Hmm...company I'm working for right now definitely didn't pay for Dreamweaver, but I don't think they're going to settle for 15 million dollars (amount needed for me to win that million).
A little misleading, check out the chart on the BSA page...needs to be a pretty big settlement for the snitch to make much. - halosniper7, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9*****, my friends know i have a copy of 300.
*****, now you know i have a copy of 300 - thcobbs, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Or would that be:
"I vill spank Jew" - bleonard, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7UP TO one million dollars. read the table on arstechnica's site. bsa also pays out on a downward slope. they reward a person with UP to 1/3rd to 1/20th of the damages in the lowest tier, UP TO 1/10th to 1/20th in their 2nd lowest tier, UP TO 1/16th to 1/20th about mid-way up the reward scale, and UP TO 1/15th in the top most payout. read techdirt's article about it; http://techdirt.com/articles/20070702/165355.shtml its a sham. No one's ever been paid more than $5,000 for this, even when BSA offered UP TO $200,000. So retards claim BSA is amazing by offering a million bucks when in reality, they are offering no set dollar amount for a reward, but rather adding the phrase "one million dollars" in their claim to attract attention (again).
- thcobbs, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Here's a simple formula....
Mine was funny, yours wasn't.
:-D
Honestly though, I think my play on a bad, fake German accent is what pulled it off.... That and a tasteless joke to boot. - Vicissidude, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Which BSA are you talking about? Ohhhh.... THAT one! When the hell are the Boy Scouts of America going to sue the Business Software Alliance for trademark infringement? The Boy Scouts have certainly been around longer than computers or business alliances based on them. The World Wildlife Federation were able to get the WWF back from the World Wrestling Federation. I'm sure we'd all love to see poetic justice with BSA.
- Pilot85, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I would do this but the snitches always die in the movies. Usually something falls on them and squishes them dead.
- Chandon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5If they did, and I were AXXO, I'd have a friend turn me in - take the 3 years in jail for coyright infringement - and spend 25 million dollars funding the scene.
- adam84a, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Nice to know I wasn't the only one :)
- hexydes, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4This is NOT in the best interest of the software industry. At least in regards to the professional software. Right now, there is a good, un-official system in place. Students and home/non-profit users illegally use the software. They use it on a very small scale, and for little to no profit. Once they move on to something professional, as others have said, they know the software and use that, generating revenue for the development companies.
Legally, measures are in place so that if someone is trying to sell pirated copies of the software, they can be sued. And if someone is using a pirated copy of the software for large profit, the developers can go after them. This allows them to make sure that they receive their fair compensation.
If students, non-profits, and home users begin to find themselves in legal trouble, it will simply drive these demographics away from the software, towards cheaper or free/open alternatives. In turn, when they get to a professional level, they will not only not feel obligated to buy the "professional" tools, but they won't have the years of experience working with them, but with other tools (OpenOffice, GIMP (ugh), Blender 3D, Audacity, etc). On top of that, as these groups get more interest in them, the quality of the software (which is already adequate to good) will just increase, making them a legitimate competitor to the "pro" tool makers currently around.
So, my advice to the software companies of the world is thus: BE CAREFUL. Are things really that bad right now? Do you really think that someone who is editing home pictures is going to pay $700 for your software, or who is making independent short films is going to pay $12,000 for the pro copy of your 3D design software? If you aren't careful, there are alternatives out there, they are happy to make a product for your users to jump to, and the users will be just as happy to jump to them if you piss them off enough.
The only exception to this is gaming, for which there really is no "pro" level where multiple licenses would be purchased. The only parallel you could draw would be something like an Internet cafe where they have to buy 20 licenses, and letting home users pirate the game would get them hooked, but I don't think that the US is interested enough in that to really make it a legitimate case. - mfratt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The other thing is that Adobe and most other companies that "suffer" from piracy aren't actually loosing any money. Almost none of said college students would actually pay $500-3500 for software if piracy weren't an option (face it, most of us can't afford it). I know that if I couldn't pirate Photoshop for example, I'd just have to bite the bullet and use the GIMP, rather than going out an spending 600 precious dollars on it.
- cawpin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3What if I turn myself in? Do I still get the cash?
- VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Wanna bet a million?
- chris9902, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3First thing I did in my job? bought Adobe's CS.
not saying piracy is right but if you want to make it in the real world you need to use the software they do and for most people learning that ***** is expensive. PLE go a long way. Maya for example does itself a massive favour in that respect. - digdugsmug, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I always thought the BSA was the Bull ***** of America
- MikeWanDo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I started thinking WTF? Then I read the article. Buried as inaccurate. Spell out BSA if it's something that not many people know.
- BrewmasterC, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Will they give out the bounty on "pirates" of GPL software that fail to release their source?
- mbdesigns, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Well...if someone snitches on ya..you can always use thermite on your HD
- Herolint, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2All I'm saying is that regardless of the money, I'd turn my last employer in for spite. Sorry I didn't write it in a way conducive to your understanding.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Same. Those darn Boy Scouts!
- Vicissidude, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Seriously. When are the Boy Scouts going to sue the BSA for trademark infringement? Heaven knows the Boy Scouts of America have been around longer than the Business Software Alliance.
That also sounds like poetic justice. - Chandon, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Wait a second? You *want* the opportunity to mentally lock yourself in to proprietary software from specific vendors? WTF?!?
- hexydes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Sorry, I should say, I wasn't really so much commenting on the $1million turn-in thing from the article, as much as I was just making a general observation on the software industry, showing motions of acting similar to the music or movie industries.
- hfactor, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Feel free to put your mad skillz in "photoshop alternatives" on your cv.
- newbill123, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I knew straight away it wasn't the boy scouts. My scout master only offered me $5 to let me walk his plank and fire his cannon.
- CiXeL, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2BSA needs to heavily advertize in spanish in miami.
there are many MANY companies ive worked for cheating on the licensing down here bigtime. there are some branches of BIG names who dont even keep track at all.
that and people worship the almighty dollar down here so theyd turn them in in a second. - onimusha115, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If your in the know enough to get this million dollars chances are they will probably have some way of bringing charges against you, so you can have fun paying those legal fees with your newfound money.
- mbsjoblom, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Just use GPL software and forget about BSA. I have never paid anything for my software and never will. I do my best to contribute to the free software community and enjoy the fruits of it. Let BSA and other greedy people do what they like. I dont't care.
- edrift101, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Nothing like getting citizens to snitch on each other...
Just remember that if you turn in your company... you might just be ending your career. How many companies are going to hire you, once you've bankrupted their competition? - DivisibleByZero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The Black Student Alliance threw around the same acronym a lot back in college. It was all pretty confusing.
"Why is the Business Software Alliance so concerned with Martin Luther King day?" - DivisibleByZero, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3The boy scouts tend to involve themselves with another form of piracy....
- Goosemaster, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3muwhahahahahahah....muwhahaAHHAHAHHAHAHA.....muWAHAHAHAHHAH
...
what the hell was I laughing about...?
....
*gets bored and fires up some TV show torrents* - Chandon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Anyone who screws around with proprietary software deserves this. Are you sure you have all your licenses? Can you *prove* it? What if a disgruntled employee installs a copy of the Adobe Suite on 30 extra workstations and then reports you? That's a maximum fine of $150,000 * 30 = 4.5 million dollars.
It's much safer to just use free software. That way you *know* you're legal. Proprietary software arguably has more features, but can you identify a single feature of Microsoft Office over OpenOffice that's worth a $150,000 liability per copy? - bonni07, on 01/24/2008, -0/+1Godwin's law!
- ronaldinho, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You need a 15 million settlement to get your 1 million? That's still too big of a risk for me, because what if your company is able to wriggle out of it and having only to pay, say, 2 million, and you get only up to $100000 for being the snitch? I know it's still two years salary (which is a lot for many of us), but those money willl obviously last shorter than you having the reputation of a "snitch". That reputation (and the new difficulty of finding another job) can last a decade or two; I'm not willing to risk it. Besides, if my company pirates things, employees are entitled to its benefits too. Now if they are saying I get 1 mill for a 1 mill settlement.....then we are talking.
I always say that if the products are good enough, people will be willing to buy it even if it's easy to pirate. I hate products which try to sucker people into paying for a subpar product. That's another thing I like about piracy. Some movies and music don't deserve those money, and piracy wipes out the pipe dream of anyone who is considering throwing out ***** stuff out there. - Herolint, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I don't need the money. I'd turn in my last employer for spite.
- xst4t1kx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1...or the plaintiff.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1That's the first time I've heard that idea expressed so concisely. It began over twenty years ago with below cost deals for hardware in primary and secondary education, and as you've pointed out it continues well into post-secondary. We've arm wrestled with finance people that are suggesting tools like inkscape and gimp as suitable replacements and they're just not ready for prime time.
- infango, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1funny
- cryptoki, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1thats why i need to make a ghost image of all my software and os.. so then i can slide the drive in the bay and 10 minutes later.. presto.. new trial!!! I just might get tired of having to create countless email accounts to keep up though
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