BSA Says 41% of Software On Personal Computers Is Pirated 569
An anonymous reader writes "Individuals are turning to P2P networks and auction sites in staggering numbers to acquire or transfer illegal software and in doing so are harming the economy whilst exposing themselves to malware, identity theft and criminal prosecution, according to a report from the Business Software Alliance. Beyond P2P and auction site piracy, the report also draws correlations between Internet piracy and the spread of malware such as viruses, trojans and spyware, which often exploit vulnerabilities in illegal software that does not benefit from security updates provided by manufacturers. Although the correlation is not universal, geographies with high instances of software piracy suffer from high instances of malware."
Re:41? (Score:5, Informative)
>>>But it's true that piracy is hurting the industry (be that software, games, music or movies)
No it isn't. See my signature. One study estimated 5000 downloads per 1 lost album sale, and another study estimated 2500 downloads per 1 lost album sale. I took the more-pessimistic estimate. Both studies were done by college universities with no bias, unlike the studies coming from RIAA and BSA. (Use google to find them if you're curious, same way I found them.)
Re:41? (Score:5, Informative)
So it is hurting the industry, but not as much as the industry claims.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
But it doesn't say whether the BSA distinguish between online auctions offering cracked copies for download, pirated installation media or perfectly legitimate resale of software which the seller has no further use for.
Well, from the PDF of the actual report, they run through a bunch of 'case studies' which are by and large about who they targeted on these auctions sites like iOffer:
In August 2009, BSA announced that its members won a $210,563 judgment in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against Matthew Miller of Newark, Del., who sold illegal copies of software through an Internet auction site. Software programs published by Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft were at the center of the case, which stemmed from a 2008 investigation by BSA. US District Judge Susan Illston awarded the plaintiffs $195,000 in statutory damages and an additional $15,563 for filing costs and attorneys’ fees. Miller was barred from committing future acts of copyright infringement involving Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft software products, and was ordered to immediately destroy any and all infringing copies of such software in his possession or control. According to legal documents filed on behalf of BSA member companies, the defendant “admitted he had ‘downloaded software, burned and copied CDs, and sold about 200 to outsiders for $8.00 to $12.00.’” Records in the case also describe how Miller used the popular iOffer Web site to sell unlicensed copies of BSA member software. In one particular instance, Miller was accused of offering approximately $12,000 worth of software to an undercover investigator for just $52, with an agreed price of $45 after some haggling.
And another:
In early 2009, Timothy Dunaway of Wichita Falls, Texas, was sentenced to 41 months in prison by US District Court Judge Reed O’Conner for selling counterfeit computer software through the Internet. Dunaway was sentenced to two years of supervised release, ordered to pay $810,000 in restitution, and forfeit a Ferrari 348 TB and Rolex watch. From July 2004 through May 2008, Dunaway operated approximately 40 Web sites that sold a large volume of downloadable counterfeit software. He operated computer servers in Austria and Malaysia; US and foreign law enforcement agents cooperated in the investigation. Dunaway purchased advertising for his Web site on major Internet search engines and processed more than $800,000 through credit-card merchant accounts under his control. The software sold by Dunaway had a combined retail value of more than $1 million.
There are more. I didn't see anything in the report about illegitimate versus legitimate resale and replication. I'm guessing they rely on the license terms to determine whether or not it's legitimate for me to resell my Warcraft 3 CDs or Windows XP Key. I'm guessing that Blizzard & Microsoft would be the ones informing them that's not legitimate.
By and large, however, the report focuses on people who pretty blatantly violate copyright and sell them on auction sites. A guy I knew in college did this and made a couple thousand on eBay before getting a seriously nasty letter from Microsoft. This would have been in ~2001 I think. I'm sure the same crap goes on with more serious consequences.
I'm not defending the BSA but they list case studies of the kind of piracy they are targeting.
Re:Because malware never comes with legal software (Score:5, Informative)
This article is BS. There are probabilistic elements in software piracy and malware, but those statistics came from /dev/random
If you know where to get your pirated software, then it's more than the distributors honor is worth, to let anything dodgy get into their release.
The bit about "geographies with high instances of software piracy suffer from high instances of malware"; Ok that is probably true, and in S.Korea I don't think you can call legally sell it as a "computer" if it isn't full to the brim with malware.
Made up numbers (Score:3, Informative)
Hey, it works well for the *AA's in perverting public opinion and getting laws enacted so why should the BSA be any different?
Re:Freedom (Score:2, Informative)
Right so firefox, kde & gnome are all terrible? There are a few areas where commercial software is better than FLOSS (that isn't to say FOSS can't compete). Photoshop has tools pros need that gimp lacks, however for everybody else GIMP is a competitive option (if your a pro then just pay up!). Open Source gaming does suck but that is hardly representative and even then there are many games that are easily competitive in their sub-genres (wesnoth & 3d versions of nethack are good). Outside of gaming, OSS can compete with most desktop software so there is no excuse for pirating software.
Re:Freedom (Score:3, Informative)
Open source's answer to Photoshop is still what, GIMP?
GIMP's target audience is programmers who want to add some artwork to their software without having to pay $700 or learning to think as artists rather than engineers. For this audience GIMP is not only a superior alternative on price - even big companies do not get a license just so someone can draw an icon - but also has a far easier learning curve. For example, there is a single way to define a shape - selection - rather than one set of operations to select and another to draw. Or just the fact that unlimited undos are enabled out of the box rather than running into a rude surprise with Photoshop.
Photoshop Elements is a better choice for non-technical home users, but there are also a number of basic open source tools for photo adjustment.
Photoshop is really only an answer for commercially successful artists with deep pockets. It's not an audience likely to contain a lot of programmers or one that is going to attract attention of a typical open source developer. However these artists could have a better product by pooling resources to produce an alternative not tied to any particular company. Since they don't, I guess they are happy with Photoshop.
Re: definition of "pirated" (Score:4, Informative)
They go farther. If you buy a used computer with Windows already installed and don't pay anything to Microsoft they classify you as a pirate even though that is entirely legal under US copyright law.