As a developer of software and selling programs on the web, I understand how much it sucks to be ripped off. One of the hotbeds for this illegal activity is the Asia-Pacific region accroding to News from The Associated Press:

Software piracy in the Asia-Pacific region cost manufacturers an estimated $8 billion in 2004, with China, Vietnam and Indonesia among the top five nations flouting intellectual property laws, a global anti-piracy watchdog said Wednesday

With that said, let me add that the actual raw cost of distributing software once it is produced is very small. Most people realize this and some seem to feel (usually those not in the business) that they are being ripped off paying hundreds of dollars for something where it costs a very small amount of money to distribute the actual bits and bytes. The packaging and shipping costs are more expensive than the media.

What isn’t as readily apparent to these people is the time, expense and resources involved in creating and maintaining and upgrading the software. Some projects take months and even years to develop only to produce an end product that retails for $100 or less. The investment and time/resources is then anticipated to be returned when the developers can finally start selling the product. Some people mortgage their future (financially) in the hope that the product they spend time developing will return the investment and allow them to continue work innovating new things or making the existing product even better. Some people spend free time away from their families working on projects which may never even make back the expenses, much less a profit.

In a nutshell, this is how it works for development houses of all sizes. The difference between big and small is, generally speaking, the size of the bank account and talent. A company like Microsoft can afford to dump millions into a project that doesn’t bring back profit, but a small development house may go under if they make something that doesn’t sell back to profit. Even Microsoft, with all it’s money, can’t invest in too many money-losing propositions though or the shareholders will be upset.

For small shops like mine with less than five developers, we have to distribute online. And even when we give away more than 75% of the code we produce, we still have people who steal the code and/or violate the licensing agreements. It’s a cost of doing business.

I buy commercial software, pay for shareware that I use and if I like something that is donationware then I donate. I do believe that most people on this earth are good, honest people and behave similarly.

There are situations where people might have a laptop and desktop machine and share the software between the two computers and most licensing agreements forbid this. I wonder if that type of piracy is as egregious as buying a black market CD (or DVD) in some village in Asia, snagging a bittorrent of the file, checking an fserv in IRC, etc? Then again, theft is theft, so maybe it’s all just different shades of black.

I also strongly believe that the music industry has been raping fans for years. I bought a lot of tapes and then albums and now CDs of the same music. It seems like I just keep buying and rebuying the same media, which is frustrating as a consumer. The same thing is happening with VHS to DVD and … well to the next format whatever it will be.

They want to take away my right to make archival copies and that is wrong. If I buy something, whether it be software, music or movie I should be able to use it for the life of the product or my life. I shouldn’t have to buy the exact same thing again on a different format. Note that buying a paperback book is different than buying an audiobook, I’m not talking about different types of content from the same body of work. I’m talking about the same content on diferent formats.

I believe this consumer abuse, for lack of a better word, has driven more people — some of which would never walk into any store and just steal something off the shelf — to push the gray lines with music piracy, license and copyright infringement. Perhaps it is sort of a vigilante type justice for being taken advantage of in the marketplace.

The problem with this type of vigilante consumer behavior in the software realm is that software is rarely repackaged and resold, videogames being the big exception (how many times has Namco sold and resold PacMan?), simply because it is being improved, retooled and recoded for bigger, better platforms. The little guys out here though like me sure need people to pay for each license or donate if it’s donationware or shareware if it is something they use or the model of sharing on the web starts to break down.

Again, I do believe that most people do the right thing.

It’s too bad that a certain region of the world has a higher concentration of people doing the wrong thing. But it’s equally wrong to characterize everybody from this region as bad people. I have to catch myself sometimes when I get frustrated with certain parts of the world where this type of activity is more widespread. Do you?

Solutions:

For people who make products
Let your customers make an archival copy and be able to use the product for the life of the product or our life, if applicable. Allow us to transfer ownership of that product permanently to someone else (and thus give up our right to use the product any longer). Price your products/services fairly and commiserate to the value and give customers long enough shelf life so that they will not be more compelled or tempted to violate your licensing.

For software consumers
Buy what you use. If you use multiple computers and the license forbids that usage, then buy the extra licenses. If money is tight, and it’s tight for a lot of people, then consider switching to an open source alternative and/or try places like eBay if you need to pick up a legitimate copy at a discount from someone else (watch out for pirated copies even selling on eBay though). Another thought is to talk to the vendor of the program about some sort of discount for multiple computers. If you are using a software or services that have donation boxes, then donate. If you use shareware, then pay the shareware price.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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