This article appeared in the May 12, 1992 issue of PC MAGAZINE, and is copied here without permission-as if we really cared! THE SOFTWARE PIRACY BLUFF By: John C. Dvorak People still copy software, and most of us who work for a living have little sympathy for the plight of the software vendor. After all, the software industry will eventually generate more millionaires than any other business in history. Bill Gates, with a net worth of $7 billion, is now the richest man in America, and his money was accumulated from scratch-zero-in 15 years flat. Meanwhile, the watch-dog Software Publishers Association (SPA) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) claim that whatever the software industry sells, it loses at least 50 percent to pirates. They keep changing the number, but they like to say that if it's a $10-billion-a-year industry, then another $10 billion goes to pirates. In other words, Bill Gates should be worth twice as much! Let's examine Gates's net worth. If you made $5 million dollars a year (and few people do) and put it under your bed, it would take you 1,400 years to achieve Gates's current net worth. Here's another cute calculation: Forget about interest. If you lived to be 70, to achieve Bill Gates's current net worth you'd have to make $100 million (that's got eight 0's in it!) each year from the day you were born to the day you died. At Microsoft there are something like 100 millionaires (maybe more). It's easy to go on and on about this. Suffice to say that the public is not too thrilled with overnight millionaires (or billionaires) who are whining that they aren't making enough money because pirates are ripping them off. To expect a sympathy vote from the public is ludicrous. When you consider the wealth of Bill Gates, and how impossible it is to achieve such wealth, you have to wonder who's ripping off whom. While software serves a useful robotic function, does it have to cost so much? No way. Meanwhile, in a never-ending attempt to coerce the world into paying more money for software than is practical, the BSA is now attacking Germany. According to a news report: "In a submission to the US Trade Representative regarding allegedly inadequate copyright protection, the BSA says Germany leads its list of countries causing the world software industry's greatest revenue loss from piracy...[With] 1990 losses of $1.86 billion, the BSA recommended Germany be placed on the Priority Watch List by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (The IIPA represents the copyright industries of software, motion pictures, music, and books.) The BSA said next in line for concern are Italy and Taiwan, where it estimates total piracy losses in 1990 at $754 million and $753 million, respectively." The question on my mind is: How were these enormous figures for piracy--3.37 billion--calculated? Out of thin air, that's how. You guess how many illegal copies might be made per unit sold and then mutiply that number by the total legitimate sales in the country. If copy protection were perfect, would the extra monies be realizd? Unlikely. The fact is that most users, instead of buying software that they earlier copied, would use inexpensive shareware or bargain repalcements. In fact, the software industry would probably be sunk if piracy were eliminated. Prices would fall rapidly as market share was gained by the cheap alternative until they dominated the software market altogether. The loss figures are as bogus as a $3 bill, and the software industry knows it. The message that needs to be sent to the software industry can only be sent by the users of bootleg software. Go legit and buy those inexpensive shareware and public-domain alternatives. The industry will stop whining about lost revenues from piracy when we refuse to play its game. Transcriber's notes: While Mr. Dvorak does not endorse piracy (publicly at least), This article points out how the general public is so misinformed about supposed piracy losses. He also states that users should go legit and buy shareware. Two problems with that. 1- A pirate never pays for his tech. 2- A pirate would never be caught dead using shareware or PD unless it suited his purpose. This article is somewhat encouragin for programmers, at least. If you make the alternatives, then you get the money. Personally, I think shareware and PD programs are about as much fun as watching what a mouse does when you set its hair on fire--lightly roasted tastes like chicken. I don't like PD, but it serves my purposes. When I do program I try to get whatever I can for my work, but I couldn't live with myself if I became on of those bourgeois who run the software industry. What Mr. Dvorak says has definite economic solidity. If demand for a product goes down because of the presence of a less expensive substitute, the price must also go down or it will fail. A basic economic rule. I brought this article to your attention not to make you stop whatever "pirating" you may be doing. Indeed, if we stopped pirating software, what would we do for fun? This is here merely for your information and entertainment. Even if people DID buy PD instead of normal software industry programs, pirates would still be needed to "spread the wealth",if you get my meaning. We're here, we ain't going nowhere, we're moving right next door to YOU! Piracy is here to stay. Sorry Mr. Dvorak. (Yeah, right!)