Û Aaron Gelner wrote to Kalman Daniel on 20 Jul 97  09:57:07
Greetings Aaron Gelner !
 KD> Well, in my country 90% of all stuff is pirate, so you wouldn't have to 
[...]
 AG> Just shows lack of respect of the authors of the programs in your
 AG> country..
No, it's shows the sotware prices and the ammount people can spend on them.
I don't want to annoy you with Eastern Europe's financial situation, but with
prices being the same as abroad people just can't afford to buy software.  Of
course, you say at least companyes should buy what they use.  But when a CAD
program costs about ten months salary of someone working with it, I don't 
now
who could afford to buy them.
 
 AG> So, because 90% of the country does it, you say it is okay?
I never said such thing.  I say, that people who make money out of someone
else's work, like a company, should buy sofware.  With about 50 percent lower
prices, I think they could gain a lot of customers.  But what they do, is
support BSA, who then puts out huge posters throughout the country 
hreatening
with bars and handcuffs.  This simply makes us sick.  Why ?  Because 
urrently
they can't enforce the law, but they could sell much more just buy 
aintaining
useful support and giving discounts.  Have you ever tried to call an M$
support line ?  Well, I have.
 AG> Well, I find  that really ignorant personally.  Just like saying if he
 AG> does it, it is fine  for the rest.
It's not fine, but people are not the only ones to change.
 
 AG> So, if you had a job, and was worth 36 billion
 AG> dollars, and shit, you  wouldn't care if you got payed.  Yeah right.
I would care, only noone else would...
 AG> Gates is not really an author ANYMORE  anyways.  He runs the business,
 AG> he pays people to do it, and those people do  get paid lots of money.
That's it !  By the way, do you know where M$ and other huge companies would
be if their products were never pirated ?  Nowhere.  Becasue they had no
shareware, educational or trial versions like Netscape does.  But since - at
least until now - every newly sold PC here contained M$ DOS (since noone
cared), people only used, and sometimes bought M$ products, developers only
developed programs for M$ products and so forth.  So don't tell me piracy has
actually hurt M$, bacause that would mean you totally bought their storry.
 AG> I can see why
 AG> Bill is worth  so much now, the more YOU AND YOUR COUNTRY pirate his
 AG> company ownership  software, he decides to raise prices.
WRONG.  I assume you know nothing about economics, but no matter, I'll try to
explain.  First of all, M$ and other companies only say, that their prices 
re
so high because of piracy.  They calculate out, how (with what prices) could
they make the biggest profit, and they use those.  It doesn't matter if twice
as many people buys, it only matters what is the biggest price these people
would pay.  If in countries like mine there were no piracy AT ALL, noone 
ould
use buggy M$ products (at least operating systems), and M$ would make no
profit.  This is why they - of course unofficialy - are not willing to stop
people pirating at all.  They only try to persuade _companyes_ to buy, and
since companies have a lot to loose, they enter this deal.
 
 AG>  I bet ya if
 AG> it weren't for you warez  freaks out there who think you are all elite,
 AG> than win `95 probably would have  been so so MUCH cheaper.
Wrong again.  I don't pirate because I think it's elite.  I pirate stuff I
can't pay for right now, but willing to pay for as soon as I have the money.
You bought them already, since you had the money ?  So you live in a bit
richer country than I do. 
 AG> You see, I am more into supporting ALL WHO CREATES SOFTWARE.
Okay. But tell me, why do they use the same prices here as in your country ?
Tell me, why they keep telling lies ?  I read an official M$ declaration a 
ew
weeks ago.  It was about why you should use legal software.  They came up
almost empty handed.  The declaration said, legal software has the following
advantages:
- it contains no viruses and has no bugs, unlike pirate copies
- you get a discount on the next version
- you get online support  (which is quite shitty here)
- if the PC hangs or deteriorates, the software failure is not possible,
  therefore you can prove it to a hardware manufacturer that it's the 
ardware
  that's not good enough, and they will replace it
Do you think they are fair when they keep this up ?  Have you read a M$
license agreement ?  Both of us know, for example, that Windows NT can be
hacked quite easily for a trained person.  Still, it has a very good security
certificate (c3), which would mean it's safe.  Just like M$ internet explorer
has more security bugs than any other product I know about.
 AG> Wrong!  They  deserve nothing but a 10 year sentence with a
 AG> $100,000 fine and no chance on  parole.  Many here will disagree with
 AG> that, but that is the way it should be.   
The first to disagree would be the huge software companies.  They make money
out of piracy, because people who tried the product are more willing to buy
it, than those who haven't seen it yet.
 AG> It is your punk @$$3@ who make bill gates rich anyways.  Look at
 AG> you, they  DO raise prices do to PIRATING. forget it, I am getting to
 AG> hateful of you  warez kiddies.
Wrong again.  I'm not a kid, I consider myself an adult.  If you are hateful
and can't reason, you simply loose, meaning you can't defend your opinion.
 
 AG> rest will be discontinued, I do not
 AG> wish to reply to it. 
But you allow me to do so, don't you ?
Over and out...
                                          Daniel
... Does "PIRATE" software come with a treasure map?
--- OMX/Blue Wave/386 v2.30
---------------