When Jesus washed~!

He washed $30,000 of software expenses away~!

Got some free software today~! At $30,000 a pop, I just outright said, "I can't pay for it," and tada~!

And there was much rejoicing~!

[ Had to tell somebody who could appreciate it... ]

$30,000 software for free? Hmm....sounds like someone visited Kazaa today!

Nice to see that you have $30,000 to spare to walk into the store and buy it...

No - it's not pirated.

The company's major stock holder is a good friend of mine, and I asked him nicely. He knows that I can't afford it, and I've done lots of favors for him in the past.

do you know that Microsoft offers Windows XP here in Egypt for business by only $75.... and home users by $10... and Office 2002 for home users by only $5...

a certified copied... on a CD... there may be subsidization from the goverment in this.. but these are the prices here for Microsoft Products.

zMaestro wrote: do you know that Microsoft offers Windows XP here in Egypt for business by only $75.... and home users by $10... and Office 2002 for home users by only $5... a certified copied... on a CD... there may be subsidization from the goverment in this.. but these are the prices here for Microsoft Products.

Holy mother of Bill~! That's really cheap. What's piracy like there? In Malaysia you can buy anything on the street for a few dollars. Here in Seoul you can't buy pirated software at all. It's pretty strict. But everyone copies software anyways...

this is the best way to fight piracy... if i develpoed a vital program an offered it for $100, 100 may buy it... and 10000 will copy it

If I offered it for $10, 10000 will buy it.. and none will copy it...

zMaestro wrote: this issue is too complicated...

This is why I said that.

for example, how can a student in college buy autocad 2000 for ex. to learn on it at home? it is by $$$$$$, but, it is copied for cents on a CD...

If there were a Full Functional Version, not allowed to be owned by companies... but just students, for $10-20, guess more than 30,000 students can do what?

This is what Microsoft made, and other companies have to, in order not to fight piracy only... but to gain more dollar$.

Personally, I don't have a beef with piracy for non-commercial/educational purposes for individuals. I don't see why a starving student should have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for software just so that they can learn how to use it.

Admittedly, I've used pirated software to learn a lot. I also buy a lot of software. Most of my non-living expenses spending is in software. And I don't feel guilty a bit for trying a pirated version of DeZign. I bought the software and now own it and I also use it for commercial work as well as private things.

Often I simply don't have the time to mess around with warez. They simply aren't worth it if you need to rely on them.

As for licenses, I think I like the Fruityloops license about best. They offer lifetime updates for free. Very cool.

i never paid for the software for my personal / learning use..

but for my business...i always have to purchase the software other wise the agents who come from the government to check in ur company that wether all softwares r legal or not would catch me..!!

HELL..would have bought windows server 2003 enterprise edition for $1500 USD.. and got ripped...

but wait.. bought the orignal msdn CD-ROM for $15 from a street shop..

that still is orignal and legal.. hehe

the boss wrote: i never paid for the software for my personal / learning use.. but for my business...i always have to purchase the software other wise the agents who come from the government to check in ur company that wether all softwares r legal or not would catch me..!! HELL..would have bought windows server 2003 enterprise edition for $1500 USD.. and got ripped... but wait.. bought the orignal msdn CD-ROM for $15 from a street shop.. that still is orignal and legal.. hehe

I think it all comes down to fair use. In another thread, KC was debating charging richer clients more money for the same work. On some levels it is kind of sick, and on other levels quite fair.

e.g. If you are willing to let some runt kid use your software for free because you know he's not making money from it, and he's just playing around/learning, then that's probably a good thing.

I don't think that any of this applies to games though. Playing games is playing games, and if you do, you should pay for them. As for buying a $40,000 Oracle license... whatever. (And that's pretty cheap for Oracle...)

I only wish that I could pick up legal CDs of software for $15.00. Envy envy envy envy...

Bluefrog wrote: e.g. If you are willing to let some runt kid use your software for free because you know he's not making money from it, and he's just playing around/learning, then that's probably a good thing.

But who's to say if that kid will turn around and buy it WHEN he starts making money off of that software...

KCWebMonkey wrote: But who's to say if that kid will turn around and buy it WHEN he starts making money off of that software...

first, I want to replace WHEN by IF in the sentence.

the problem is that the price of the programs MUST be low enough and afforded... or it will be brought from Kazaa!

KCWebMonkey wrote: Bluefrog wrote: e.g. If you are willing to let some runt kid use your software for free because you know he's not making money from it, and he's just playing around/learning, then that's probably a good thing. But who's to say if that kid will turn around and buy it WHEN he starts making money off of that software...

True enough. And I don't think that this is a problem that is going to be solved easily.

zMaestro - I think you're right about making software affordable, but for a lot of software that is used to make money, it is very expensive to develop and you have to recoop those costs, and hence high prices often ranging into thousands of dollars. Other considerations might include licensing technologies like LZW for GIFs or other compression technologies (MPEG prices are really high... with an initial capital outlay of no less than $10,000).

For now, I think piracy and policing do a relatively good job of taking care of the situation. The police don't come into your house to search your computer, but they check offices - which is primarily where money is made. Unfortunately, this is still not ideal.

I like what Bruce has done here - "donation-ware". I've donated (and I hope others have as well), but I'd guess that Bruce hasn't been adequately compensated for his work. Kind of a catch-22.  

As for Kaaza, I think it's a great thing. I use it to distribute trial software and people download it. The only thing I have to do is keep some computers running. It's a very cheap way for publishers/developers to distribute software. CNet wants $80.00 now to list software there - that's just to have it listed - and CNet is such a mess now with so many titles that your results (or ROI) is dubious at best. After a week or so there are a ton more applications added and yours is way down the list where nobody will ever find it. Simtel lists for free and mirrors it even  - a much nicer situation there.

I also never pay for software for personal use.... I probably have about half a million or more worth of pirated software....

I don't buy from pirate stores neither, don't even know of one, but why buy it when you can download it for free??

Even if it is for business... it must be affordable... I want to buy a webmail software for my server,the SmartMax installed is very very bad... i saw many good softwares, like the one gearhosts used.. but it is for $600 and more... if it was in range of $50-75. i would bought it....

Small Business needs another look too.

Bluefrog wrote:  (MPEG prices are really high... with an initial capital outlay of no less than $10,000).

this 10,000 must be lowered too....

also $500 x 20 users = $10,000

the same as $1000 x 10 users = $10,000

also $10 x 1000 users = $10,000

I am sure if it is in range of $10, 10,000 users will bye it.

$10 x 10,000 = 100,000 (costs covered)

(am I good in arithmatics??)

zMaestro wrote: Bluefrog wrote:  (MPEG prices are really high... with an initial capital outlay of no less than $10,000). this 10,000 must be lowered too.... also $500 x 20 users = $10,000 the same as $1000 x 10 users = $10,000 also $10 x 1000 users = $10,000 I am sure if it is in range of $10, 10,000 users will bye it. $10 x 10,000 = 100,000 (costs covered)   (am I good in arithmatics??)

I was referring to the technology licenses for MPEG, which are insanely high. It completely bars individuals from getting into the professional/commercial markets where money is actually made. I'm all for more open technology standards that I don't have to pay to use. e.g. HTML, XML, etc. I really do have to hand it to Microsoft on this one - they let people use their technology implementations for free~! (I'm thinking of Windows Media Formats specifically...)

Seriously... your choices for audio are MP3 (free but impossible to develop), AAC ($10,000 to start), OGG vorbis (free I think...), VQF (not sure), AC-3 ($10,000 to start), DTS (like aac and ac-3), WMA (free) etc...

HOWEVER... the ONLY ones that offer anywhere near the same quality are AC-3, AAC, DTS, and WMA~! Well, wma isn't open, but it's free~! This seems like a no brainer to me.

KCWebMonkey wrote: Nice to see that you have $30,000 to spare to walk into the store and buy it...

at the store...it will only cost $3..

fernan82 wrote: I also never pay for software for personal use.... I probably have about half a million or more worth of pirated software.... I don't buy from pirate stores neither, don't even know of one, but why buy it when you can download it for free??

downloading is a waste of time.. especially when you are on the move and need a software immedeatly..but otherwise.. i would got for download too if i wish to pay 150 times more money than the CD cost for my bandwidth bill

the recent addition in my collectioon are

office 2003
Nero 6
Norton Antivirus 2004 Pro
Flash MX 2004