"According to the IDC, software piracy worldwide was nearly $40 billion in 2006. For every two dollars' worth of software purchased legitimately, 1 dollar's worth was obtained illegally." This is what TechTarget.com writes in advertising one of its offerings in its July set of white papers.
This is one of those polluted statistics that gets recklessly tossed around, but has no real basis. Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it should be reigned in. But lets put some integrity behind the measurement. Putting all forms of ill-gotten software in the same bucket is good for boosting numbers, but poor for getting a true picture on the problem.
All of the below is software piracy:
- A Mom buys a $15 "learn to spell" PC game for her 5 year-old, lets a friend borrow it and install it.
- A curious avid bit torrent user downloads a $60,000 piece of specialized medical imaging software just to see what its like. He installs it, checks it out, deletes it. At the end, he says to himself, "Gee, neat!"
- A small welding shop has 3 workstations equipped with Windows XP and MS Office. The MS Office software is downloaded and unlicensed.
Let's state now that all of the above scenarios are not legal, and are clear cases of copyright infringement. Bad. However, one of the above is a business generating revenue from business equipment that has not been paid for. Recall the earlier $40 billion dollar figure. If this goes down to $30 billion, can we determine why? Are aloof bit torrent downloaders merely directing their attention elsewhere? Are software license crackdowns working? Are large-scale businesses remembering to license all of their software? If you lump 'em all together, you just don't know.
The IDC's loosey-goosey formula
Some loosey-goosey termsIts a better litmus test on our driving if we show how many reckless driving charges there are in 2007, versus how many total vehicle citations were issued. Lumping the criminally negligent reckless driver in with the guy cited for going 15 over on the Freeway doesn't give me a clear picture of how people are driving. I hope this parallel isn't too far off to show my point.
I get the feeling that the guys coming up with these piracy figures has a vested interest in coming up with the highest possible number.
2 comments:
By the lack of other's comments, it seems that piracy seems like a more acceptable practice.
Oh by the way, in reference to this blog entry, you're a geek. ;)
I want my bootleg copy of Girls Gone Wild back. It's been two years!
Post a Comment