Beware the ideas of March - Brummie Shakespeare
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FAST software cops head north
REWARD OFFERING software license botherers from FAST, the Federation Against Software Theft, are travelling to the North of England as part of their crusade to fine firms, turn employees into stool pigeons and keep software company CEOs in private planes and power boats.
Phil Keown, the chairman of FAST explained that software 'piracy' put jobs on the line and added that the area is a technology innovation hot spot and is apparently lacking but one thing - education about the dangers of copyright theft.
"Software piracy is sometimes seen as a victimless crime, but the simple reality is that anything that harms legitimate, legal sales will cost jobs. The North East is a vital region for the UK's technology industry as it plays home to a number of world leading software companies and hundreds of jobs are dependent on protecting their intellectual property," he said.
"That is why we are working hard to educate Trading Standards across the region, giving them the tools and knowledge to combat this crime."
The FAST campaign begins on 29 March in Gateshead and will see its troopers instill a sense of urgency about its cause amongst trading standards officers. µ
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Linux ftw. I don't pirate software, I use Linux. Linux is just, well, better. It's more stable and uses less power for the same tasks. Linux sitting at idle doing nothing wipes the floor with Windows version of the same "idle" status.
I also run a lot of distributing computing projects where you basically process data for various research projects(BOINC) and I get 10-20% more number crunching done than if I were running the Windows version of the same project. Not only that, many times the Linux software for the project got significantly less time invested in it's creation, simply because Linux WORKS and you don't need to call Microsoft support to find out the voodoo you need to perform to get the program to do what you want.
When you use the proprietary stuff, you're someone named Steve's bitch, when you use the Linux the computer is YOUR bitch and no one else's.
Oh, and virus software is pretty much unnecessary because the OS is made the way it's supposed to be made, not giving permissions willy nilly to random programs just because you wanted to see what it did. Why does World of Warcraft program deserve to have the right to write to your whole damn hard drive?
If the software pirate used free and open source software (FOSS) instead of pirating proprietary software then they still would not have to pay for the software (quite legally) and would save money for businesses/private individuals. Are they going mention to mention FOSS in this Northern Tour - e.g. install Linux/LibreOffice/GNUCash instead of pirating Microsoft Windows/Office and SAGE? Of course not. In my opinion, FAST is a front organisation which makes sure that the consumer continues to pay incumbant proprietary software vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAGE and VMware rather than being concerned with the welfare of the software industry. Before anybody calls me something insulting (freetard etc) - I have voluntarily donated to various open source projects - I believe this is much more worthwhile than paying the likes of incumbant (semi)monopolies like Microsoft.
What the FAST idiots are describing is neither of those things. But I guess they didn't listen to the story of the boy who cried wolf.
Hardly The Register, this site, is it?
So the "non customer" told his brother he can give him a copy? you do realize that most Win7 install allow for 2 computers under 1 license correct? 1 PC & 1 Laptop.
Also, versions of office allow 3 computers etc.
To assume he was a pirate is a bit much, goes to show how much you respect your customers.
Additionally, you may be aware that fewer and fewer people go to the shops for media. You can buy a Win7 license online & download to a USB stick.
So let's assume that the person IS a pirate. If he could not get the software for free, would he buy it?
There's loads of software out there on torrents sites that people do not want even for free.
Look at windows vista, people did not install it for free. Look at all the expensive sofware out there that is amazing & people either do not want it or don't know what to do with it.
I do not accept that just because a person decided to break the law and obtain a pirated copy of software that it's a lost sale.
To be frank, if your store was based on software sales you have misread the market, people get most of their OS/office software from their computer vendor, like DELL/HP/Acer/Sony. Not from some random store.
You seem bitter, having $2500 unsold goods sucks, but did that really put you out of business? sounds like this store was failing on other levels too.
In any case, I own a legal copy of my OS, office software, AV, defragmenter & all the games I have are legit too.
Why am tell you? because before I bought them, I tried them out to make sure it's worth my money.
Accurate SAM: www.accuratix.com, some PR, little policy, and no problems...
Becuase of strong piracy in the community I had a computer store, I got stuck with crap loads of software.
I was continually asked if I had 'free versions' of the software available.
Lets put it this way, id I were to sells a pirated software, then the end user expects to pay less for install or do it themselves (as they are cheap). THis costs me work.
Also I had one case that I picked up software for a custome and his brother for his laptop, bnut his brother had the nerve to tell my customer 'its okay you dont need this, you can load my copy'. So I got stuck with the software.
All together, when I closed my store, I was stuck with over $2500 in unsold copies (my cost), all thanks to piracy.
The problems with pirates, as they push their philosophy onto other users, amd the other users now become depended and don't know any better,
I found pirated software on majority of the pcs I fixed. And a lot of the people didn't even know they did something wrong, or said one of the family memers installed it for them.
Either way, i lost out on selling software becuase of piracy, and it hurt my buisness big time.
Pirates should burn in hell or Get a job.
THe main problem is, pirates infect people all around them. So piracy is spreading like a cancer.
These days it cheap to buy software when you look hard, so their is no reason to pirate. Yes you are putting some people out of work when you be a cheap skate, but you are still employing some. And the many jobs the software companies provides, can still continue to operate.
YEAH I TRY TO PAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.
I ALSO ASK FOR, AND RECEIVE, FREE COFFEE REFILLS FROM MCDONALDS.
PRETTY MUCH SHAMELESS I RECKON.