Originally posted by CX:
what talking you??? Explorer, Internet Explorer, Word Pad, media player all comes packaged with windows...
if u dowan to pay for MS windows, there's Linux... don't say there are no alternatives... there are just no alternatives YOU like better than pirated windows.
Nobody likes to use pirated window but Linux is not much of an alternative. It is still a monopoly situation!!
yes, they do offer student package and student price... just gotta show your matric card. but no question about it, its still more ex than pirated software.
laptops are also sold on campus and the all come packaged with software.
I know how to buy a student package and pay a student price. The point is that it is much cheaper now than it was before. why? marketing strategy, to counter pirated copies!!!
basic law of economics: bad money drives out good money. if u have counterfeits in the market, soon enough, most of the money circulated will be counterfeits cos people will just start to hoard the legal tender.
What talking you? what legal tender hoarding?
with pirated software, u are basically offering a cheap alternative by under-cutting the original producers. they R & D, they market, they produce and in the end, pirates sell and they get nothing. in the long run, it will just stifle innovation and be bad for consumers. it is not an economic alternative... it is counterfeiting, and theft.
The profits reported in Microsoft P&L are net off all the R&D costs, marketing costs and distribution costs, and all the salaries, and it is still phenominal, despite of the many pirated copies in so many countries! why?? They are charging what the market can take! nothing to do with costs.
and why do they have to resort to selling it to big companies instead of developing it themselves? easy money? quick buck?
or the fact that they know they CANNOT protect their codes from pirates?
Not easy money or quick buck but faster and easier realisation of returns. You don't need to have legal dept to do protection, no marketing department to think of how to pack and sell, no logistic dept to worry about how to distribute..... you can work from yr home, no overhead! Not because the programmers CANNOT protect their codes from pirates, once you sell the rights to the company, protection is the problem of the company!
a thief is a thief is a thief... stealing from anyone is a crime. if u steal from the rich, he doesn't give away the rest of his wealth... he acquires more of it by squeezing the poor even more.
You really think the rich will give away his wealth if they are not stolen?? are you buying originals because you are afraid they will squeeze the poor more?

the next time you need to upgrade you think they will charge you less because you are using originals?? Well, at least you agree that they are squeezing the poor.
Taking what is not yours is stealing; taking more than what you should is also stealing....a thief is a thief!!!

[quote]but how much cheaper can licensed software get? till it matches the street price of pirated CDs? no way... not unless u're willing to compromise on quality and after-sales support (no call center, no online updates, no documentation, no support of any kind... gee... if liddat, i'll rather use linux man )
competition in the form of different software companies offering different products is "alternative"... such competition breed product diversity, gives consumers choices and in a bid to sell, better products are made.
piracy undercuts such competition. companies will have no incentive to innovate because pirates will end up making the money from it.
I don't know the actual costs of a software, but I know in singapore you can get Windows at over S$200, in China only over S$100, the pirated ones in Singapore S$8, in China S$3 (ppl actually make money from that low prices!!) There is no need to match the pirated CD prices, but surely there is still much room for prices to going down. Can the consumer association persuade them to lower prices, or WTO? The pirate vendors did.