pirate software: ethics vs resources

If you are configuring systems for people that under normal circumstances would be unable to afford such equipment, I imagine there is going to be a learning curve for such users.
In that case I would simply install one of the many flavors on Linux (that are freely downloadable) on their systems and offer a short 'basics' instructional session.
That way, they are getting a heads up on a developing technology and you are staying on the right side of the law.

I undersatnd your dilemma, and in your situation, see it as a no win situation. It would be nice to see Software companies donate applications and operating systems to developing countries. How do you determine who is worthy, and keep someone from selling (pirating) this software to buy food, clothing, etc.

In the USA, corporations who are willfully using
pirated software, so should pay the price for their deeds. Thanks to the BSA, maybe we can stop some of the corporate piracy, and it may actually bring the cost of software down.

Microsoft or MicroDollars - reportly at the Gartner ITExpo said they have attempted to adjust pricing of their software based on the countries economy. But according to the MS CEO - this has failed to slow the illegal copying of their software products. Thus they are going to remove the price adjustments.

Currently - the "Rich" American citizens are paying the bulk of Prescription research - and technology research for many organizations. But to answer you question - I comes down to a Moral issue than anything.

You have to question? How can a Company such as Microsoft charge so much for a product such as Office. When in 2002 the Office unit had over 9 billion in revenue with a NET profit of over 7 Billion, just for that unit alone.That is one hell of a great Profit Margin isn't it.

So how do you tell someone - you shouldn't steal that product - you shouldn't copy it to hundreds of machines - you should do this. But you shouldn't.

Personally I would say don't do it - you are skating (as they say in the US) on thin ice. And could be held crimially liable for installation and distribution of illegal software, with Jail time and a big fines part of it.

I would look at installation of Linux - and open source products which are just as good as Microtrash - but free of charge.

Now while M$ has gone after people/companies who pirate their software and in some cases even the companies who make the blank CD's this has been conifiened to the Asian Region as I've never heard of a case of bulk piracy coming out of any other country. Sure M$ goes after business and will go in there with their jack boots on just to check the product keys of all M$ software installed against any volume Licence agreements and that is how it should be.

But what happens in countries that aren't a signatory to the international copyrite rules.

Well I just don't know even if M$ would have a leg to stand on. However I do know that M$ seems to turn a blind eye to blantant infrigments on their EULA when hardware is sold with OEM software installed as according to the EULA that software is only licenced to the original user on one computer {original hardware} but they seem willing to allow companies to sell off ex-Government/Lease hardware with M$ software installed without any problems. This does make it hard for the "Legal" company who only deals in the proper procedures. Not 500 yards from my front door there is a shop selling off secondhand hardware like P111's with Windows up to y2k and up to Office y2k installed for $600.00 AU which is less than the cost of OEM Software without the hardware. So M$ seems to be happy to have a bit both ways so to speak.

No in a country that doesn't have any international agreements they would not have a leg to stand on and this is probably why M$ list several countries where its products can not legaly be sold under any circumstances.

Personally I would go with Linux or Free BSB just because they work better than anything M$ and you cann't have any possible problems and even better you are increasing the user base of this product greatly so that it will become a real challange to M$ dominance sooner particuarly if there are several countries who only use this type of software. But again it is not in M$ best interests to have this happen either after all M$ don't want to see an open source version of Windows being made available to the world and if/when Linux reaches that stage I'm sure that M$ will be forced to follow and it's not as if they are quitely standing on the sidelines hoping Linux will just go away. After all M$ wone the Best New Product at the last Open Source Fair this year so even they accept there is at the very least a place in the market for open source if they aren't already dipping their big toe into the water to see how it feels.

The first thing that I would do is to look up and see if the country that you are living in has any international copyrite agreements and if they do then go with Linux/Free BSB if they don't you are free to do what you want to do and even if they do have agreements M$ isn't to likely to go after you unless you are making large amounts of money off their products.

If you are just doing a favour and already have no money to speak of then it will not be in M$ best interests to bring any action against you as even if they do win they will not recoup their expences and they just might set a precident that doesn't work in their favour which would be far worse for M$ than even loosing 6 million dollars US in sales.

This is a really tricky question if it was based in any of the "Developed" countries I would know the answer I would give but under the confines that have been described here I just don't know what would be in M$ best interests. Particuarly since we aren't talking about the lattest versions of M$ software as obviously if you are using old retired hardware it will not be capable of running things like Y2K, XP or 2003 and the programs that run on these platforms.

So the question here is what is best from M$ prespective to have everyone use their software and when things get better have a ready market or to lose a potential market in the long term for a possible short term gain that just may put them out of Business latter on. If Bill Gates was still running the company I think I know which way he would go but with the new CEO and Board I'm not sure just what they would see as being in their best interests although Bill still has some considerable control over what happens it at the very least is an interesting question.

Why not steal cars and appliances and anything else you (or they) may want? Heck, just steal money for them as well.

Anything worth having is worth getting honestly. If it can't be acquired honestly, then it's not worth having.

Instead of stealing software for them, why don't you redirect your efforts and target charitable organizations - organizations that will buy it for you, so you can give it away - honestly.

I know where I'd start:

Dear Mr. Gates,

(State your case here)

If you look for an honest way to get the software, you'll get the software.

And don't anyone laugh at asking Bill Gates to donate software. Heck, he'd donate the computers to go with it. He's given away over 6 billion dollars - either cash or software or hardware or all three.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

or

http://tinyurl.com/sr8e

Go ahead, write a good letter to Mr. Gates. you have a good start in your message posted above.

If the Gates foundation can't help you, keep looking and keep trying.

Good luck.

There is NEVER a valid reason for pirating software. There are literally hundreds of thousands of FREEWARE programs available on the 'net. You couldn't name ONE commercial title that I couldn't find an equivalent freeware title.

Granted, sometimes you have to make some concessions in terms of features or ease of use but, hey, they're free.

If I can't find it for free, I write my own.

Ralph

Colin,

Unfortunately, not enough is said about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. People are too busy "hating" Gates and Microsoft for whatever reasons they may have. And, as we've discussed in previous threads, it's always the "bad news" that makes the headlines.

Say what you will about Microsoft and/or Bill Gates, but I think history will judge him as one of the most generous philanthropists of all time.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

OR

http://tinyurl.com/sr8e

I hope the person who started this thread does look into setting up a legitimate charity for the stated cause. What a great thing to do.

Actually I?ll relate this here because it has some relevance. Recently I was over in the Philippines in one of the less well travelled areas where a church runs a school to teach the children all about computers.

The parents pay a premium price to get their children educated here so they will have a better life than their parents. All sound good so far doesn?t it? Well I went in there for some reason which I can?t remember now and all I saw was these kids reading some obsolete text books that had absolutely no relevance to anything to do with computers and they where learning parrot fashion.

As there was no power in the area naturally there where no computers in the school only these text books which showed them how to get in and open Windows 3 X and run programs and the like they had some interesting pictures or I should say drawings but as I couldn?t read the language I can?t say just how good these books actually where.

But what I could say is that after these kids passed this course they would have absolutely no idea of how to use a computer or what one even looked like. When I dragged out my LT that I was caring with me I left the class to play with it but with no power the battery life was limited and it had XP Pro on so they where totally in the deep end.

They couldn?t even turn it on which is not totally unexpected as it looked nothing like any pictures that they had ever seen and with XP well I needn?t say much more than it was different to anything that they had ever run across and they had very little actually next to nothing actually.

I went back there for the next few days with as many batteries as I could find and a nifty little solar recharger for these batteries and let them use the LT until they had totally exhausted the batteries. When I left at night I recharged the batteries for the next day but what I found appalling was the general level of hatred against this school by the people I was working with, the company who they where working for offered some small sponsorship to the school but it was held in total contempt by the workers at the plant.

All I can say is thank God that I was only over there for a few days or I would have ended up killing someone as they held themselves so far above the locals because they had some form of education which wasn?t much better than these kids where getting except they got to use computers instead of only looking at books but they had no idea and where incapable of writing any solutions for problems that they ran across. I think I spent one week there writing a bit of code to fix a problem that they had started and they thought I was mad working at the school for a few days and doing my real work at night. They had absolutely no idea of any responsibility that they had to pass on any education that they might have had to help others over there its every man/woman for themselves and to hell with the rest.

Unfortunately those kids will never get jobs working with computers in any form and the money is wasted but at least they where trying which is a hell of a lot more than what I can say the last time I went into one of our Uni?s and watched the so called students who where attending that lecture.

that cultures that do not respect personal property rights will not create wealth. The creation of wealth requires investiture of time and seed money. If the country has a record of taking from those who create wealth, those who WOULD create wealth will not bother, as it will be taken from them.

Society descends into a morass of inactivity, with no-one to create opportunities for others. The cycle of poverty continues because those who would pave the way to prosperity are crushed before being allowed to "spread the wealth".

Take a look at the business environment in California. For the last several years, taxation and regulation have made it easier to operate in neighboring states rather than staying and paying the outrageous taxes and compliance costs associated with government regulations.

The business unfriendly environment is killing the goose who lays the golden eggs. Businesses fail or leave. As businesses leave, fewer jobs are available, increasing the load on society.

Then pressure rises to get more money out of the remaining businesses, so taxes increase. The doom spiral accelerates.

Often the reality is totally different. You have to remember what is considered as a crime in one society might not be considered that way by another one.

This is a common problem we in the West have always trying to Judge and Impose by our standards when they just don't/can't apply in different countries/areas of the world.

Even the US Government cut a deal with the Opium growers in Afaganstan to get control quickly as it is said he who controls the poppie fields in Afaganstan controls the country. This is something that the Russian Army never understood and they lost because of it which gave rise to what we are now trying to elimate.

It is very easy to judge when we are sitting in our airconditioned offices with millions of dollars of equipment around us and it is accepted to turn on a tap and get water or flick a switch and get power.

But in many parts of the world these are not even considered as luxeries as they just can not conceive things like this. Very sad actually but until we all can understand this there will never be any progress to make things better for all mankind.

A short time ago when I was in the Philipiens is was common to see people just squat down in the gutters and go to the toliet as there was no other place to do it and this was in the cities when you get away from the built up areas that have been made for the tourist consumption things are far worse, but as these places are seldom seen they are not widly know so nothig can be done to improve the living standards. Even if we all wanted to go there right now and attempt to do somethng we would be treated with deep suspission as to what exactly our motives actually where. You have to remember that these are oppressed people who have been that way for a very long time and have even longer memories of just how badly they have been treated by various other countries who have always claimed to be wanting to help them when they arrive and always have had the oppisite effect.

That was from something that I wrote a few weeks ago in M$ Word XP and was checked with both the spell checker and gramma checker and I didn't bother to reread it after the "Fix"

But it does just go to show how hard the English language actually is doesn't it? If you like I can send you the full text of the report minus anything refering to the company involved and the like but then again I'm only a lowely tech so I'm not susposed to be too bright but I am susposed to be loyal to the company and above all things confidential but I should go over and read the3 whole thing again just to see how bad it actually is.

You predictament is interesting.

From a legal perspective you may have several avenues to pursue. First, know what the original license agreements were. Second, know what the company's policies are. Third, learn what the international copyright laws are and your national or local laws.

Many companies permit thier license agreements to be redistributed or the software may even become public domain after newer versions or time passes. Also contact the company for a memorandum of understanding if possible. Some companies may just give out software in cases like yours. If the company is out of business chances are you can do what ever you want unless the copyrights were purchased by another company.

From a socio-economic stand point information technologies coupled with logistics could elevate depressed areas out of the duldrums. Many companies would jump on a situation where thier software pulled economically depressed people into the modern world. Develop a plan and seek to use your skills in bringing business to your area.

For example, villagers make an interesting variety of art and harvest a rare congo coco bean that Starbuck's wants in their coffee shops. Sales orders are recieved via the internet email and using a local Elephant service the beans and art are transported to a port for shipment. Banking is done via the internet as well. Along the elephant walk cellular towers could provide contact with the elephant drivers pda.

Some may think this is far fetched. I see it in our efforts regularly through projects like the Peace Corps, New Horizons, and other humanitarian aide. Coordinate with some of the ngo's that may be operating in your area.

Be a leader. I already see it in you. You came to this site seeking support. Help your neighbors by bringing business, jobs, and income.

President Bush has expressed interest in helping African nations and has dedicated money. You'll need to do some research. His focus was AIDES but I am confident that there is other money.

Of what I was talking about previously. try looking at this link

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1361900,00.asp

It is where an exemploy has actually stolen the source code movewd to a different country and started giving it away on the internet but may at some time in the future start charging for it. The only modification that has been performed was to change the language and then not very well either but there is a quandry for the company involved as it can threaten all it likes but has no way of enforcing these laws which it thinks protects its interests.

What a lot of you have to remember is that we live in a "World" economy and are not just isolated to the US where everything more or less goes as it should but that there are different countries out there who either actively encourage this type of activity or just don't give a damm one way or the other so how do you get your laws enforced in a different country where they just don't apply in the first place?

I am a clumsy typist largely because I never learnt to touch-type. I use the correct fingers for the appropriate keys, but have to visually align them from time to time.

A 78 year old computer student of mine, who had never used a typewriter in his life, could type far more accurately than myself using only one finger. Some of the most seasoned journos in the old days were whiz-bang two-finger typists.

Having set the spell-check in Word to the Australian version, I actually enjoy seeing those squiggly red lines that help me to correct errors as I go. However as spell-checkers cannot distinguish the context of a particular word, personal proof-reading is necessary.

I always disable the grammar checker because it obviously has a different idea of correct grammar and syntax to my own.

As a former world traveler courtesy of Uncle Sam, I always saw pirated items in Non-US countries - Tapes, Games, CD's, Equipment, and so on.

In many countries, US copyrights are not enforced.

In this case, contact the local US Embassy for help; there may be a program with the UN or USAID/Peace Corps concerning software.

M$ is selling XP for $40.00 in Thailand.

On a lighter note - Many pirated software programs also include virii and worm/backdoor programs already installed; this ensures that tech's will always have a job.....