Piracy - A product of price?
Monday, October 12, 2009 by budding_writer
On browsing the Stuff Technology page, a topic from this course has once again been covered. Today a story was released regarding the campaign undertaken by Microsoft to put a stop to counterfeit software being used by New Zealanders. Apparently 500 New Zealanders have been “flushed out” by the campaign, which works by inviting the user to receive voluntary updates from Microsoft, which, if accepted, will detect whether unauthorised software is being used. If it is, an invitation to purchase the real thing, or apply to receive a free genuine copy is sent by Microsoft to the user. I think that this approach by Microsoft is a much more appropriate one than we have seen in the past.
As Yar (2008) writes, crime goes further than legal or statutory prohibition, and is more a process depending on social and moral opinion. Yar (2008) references Durkheim (2003) in saying that crime “consists of an act that offends certain very strong collective sentiments”. Microsoft seems to be responding to this, by using a passive-aggressive strategy to stamp out piracy of its software products. Rather than locking people up in jail, Microsoft offers the option to go straight, or do the right thing by them. Obviously the issue of piracy would be a massive problem for Microsoft, as the amount of money lost to piracy could cause considerable damage to the company. By using such a system to encourage people to purchase their products, Microsoft could change the opinions of people.
However, I feel that the major problem with piracy revolves around the retail price of software, rather than the moral opinions of users. Whilst music and films have alternatives, which I myself have chosen to take, mainly being able to purchase music and films for reduced prices on iTunes, software is more difficult to get hold of. The RRP of Microsoft Office for Windows, at Dick Smith Electronics is $149. Some may say this is a fair price, but other may believe it is too much and turn to a pirated version. The increasing popularity of Apple computers can also have contributed to the amount of software piracy, as Microsoft Office for Mac costs $328. This is a large difference in price, and is even more likely to cause people to run pirated versions of Office on their Mac machines.
I feel that the issue of piracy is one that is going to be extremely difficult to ‘flush out’ as Microsoft hopes, but if large corporate take a leaf from Microsoft’s passive-aggressive book, it may just be possible.
As Yar (2008) writes, crime goes further than legal or statutory prohibition, and is more a process depending on social and moral opinion. Yar (2008) references Durkheim (2003) in saying that crime “consists of an act that offends certain very strong collective sentiments”. Microsoft seems to be responding to this, by using a passive-aggressive strategy to stamp out piracy of its software products. Rather than locking people up in jail, Microsoft offers the option to go straight, or do the right thing by them. Obviously the issue of piracy would be a massive problem for Microsoft, as the amount of money lost to piracy could cause considerable damage to the company. By using such a system to encourage people to purchase their products, Microsoft could change the opinions of people.
However, I feel that the major problem with piracy revolves around the retail price of software, rather than the moral opinions of users. Whilst music and films have alternatives, which I myself have chosen to take, mainly being able to purchase music and films for reduced prices on iTunes, software is more difficult to get hold of. The RRP of Microsoft Office for Windows, at Dick Smith Electronics is $149. Some may say this is a fair price, but other may believe it is too much and turn to a pirated version. The increasing popularity of Apple computers can also have contributed to the amount of software piracy, as Microsoft Office for Mac costs $328. This is a large difference in price, and is even more likely to cause people to run pirated versions of Office on their Mac machines.
I feel that the issue of piracy is one that is going to be extremely difficult to ‘flush out’ as Microsoft hopes, but if large corporate take a leaf from Microsoft’s passive-aggressive book, it may just be possible.