Dmitry Chestnykh gives a nice review of Russian piracy, and the reasons of its appearance, stating “laziness” as its main cause.
Definitely, a lack of shopping services and/or its inability of serving transaction procedures is also one of the statements, here I agree with Dmitry.
However, I’m curious how many people really buy software products in Russia, because a simple googling will give bunch of forums and portals where you can find tones of cracks; thus using a cracked software becomes really easy. Prising policy is definitely another cause, but it’s 21th century - we’ve got lots of open-source software solutions which in some points are better then paid software products.
And when are they going to purchase software or any other products paying for them?..
November 26th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Left a comment there as well… piracy is on the rise not because of the lack of payment methods, but because of the all time low ethics and morale. Not being able to buy something is not a reason for stealing it.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Leonid,
Yeah, you’re right. But I cannot be sure that it’s soo low..
November 26th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Andrey,
Getting a credit or debit card in Russia is not a problem at all. Affording a few bucks here and there isn’t a problem for anyone using a computer. Remember, that computer hardware, Internet connection, mobile phones and other things that everyone buys cost much more than most of the software.
Now consider the levels of corruption, prison culture popularity, and other parts of life to get the real reasons for the piracy…
November 27th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Piracy? Well, there is nothing wrong with it in my opinion. There is nothing much anyone can do about piracy. Personally, i think that if someone wants to lower the levels of pirated software/movies/(you name it) downloads - target the people who use torrents (in other words noobs). Get rid of them - pirated software doesn’t leave the “private” society and everyone is happy.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Timur,
piracy is just another term for “theft”. If you have nothing against “theft”, then I’m coming to steal you stuff, since you won’t mind anyway.
Getting rid of torrents (or people who use them for that matter) won’t solve the problem. Torrents are just a tool, and there are many tools out there. Also, it’ll hurt those people who use the same tools for legal purposes.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Leonid gives here an explanation of problematics concerning blocking p2p networks. I definitely prefer downloading, for example, new distros of Linux using torrents then ftp protocols.
In my opinion, a piracy is a state of mind then a state of tools..
I see only one solution here - to create a free highly competitive software which would be better then a paid one
Another thing is about movies/music - here’s where piracy will be hard to reduce
November 27th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
As with anything, the natural balance is controlling things… The importance of software per se is going down by each day. Software is moving towards the web platform, where piracy is not an issue (although security is still is). The importance of tools on the web platform will grow steadily and constantly, and we’ll get more and better free tools to access web services. Like we have with browsers, email clients, IM clients, etc.
The web is changing this area too. One of the reasons for rising piracy is falling quality of entertainment coupled with its rising price. If 20 years ago people were collecting albums, because it was worth it, these days people steal single songs, because they are often placed together with plenty o’crap on the same disk, and they triple charged.
Technology in general, and web in particular provide ways for bands to record, distribute, and advertise cheaper and easier. With this, bands are getting a bigger cut out of their own recordings and people are more willing to pay for the recordings (since money go to those who perform, not those who record and distribute).
Same for movies. I’m willing to pay some YouTube publishers for their 10-minute clips twice the price that I’m paying for a 2-hour piece of crap that goes on for weeks in the cinema…
But however the technology and progress moves on, the issue of ethics still stands.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Sorry, my previous comment might have used improper wording, so here it goes again.
Most of the pirated stuff you get online doesn’t just come from a dorky guy making an *.iso of the movie/app or whatever. Most of that is cracked, packaged (wikipedia will give you info on that) and uploaded to servers neither you or I will have access to.
Then you got those newbie torrent-kiddies and sellers that sell “pirated” stuff that they shouldn’t do. It’s not intended for them.
There is nothing wrong with p2p or torrents itself. But, hey, most online sources do state that most stuff gets leaked into public but these torrent kiddies.
Just shut down all these trackers and enjoy the benefits of making money of your product.
And just a final note, IMO piracy can never me eliminated. Sharing will still live on.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Piracy is a problem on Brazil too… Everyone just buy “pirate cd’s”, just run pirate windows copies, and so goes on…
If someone buy a software, other people start saying things like “you’re a sucker, should’ve downloaded it…”
It’s a shame.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Rafagd, thanks for stopping by.
I believe it’s the matter of ethics - because people forget that those programs are written by same people like them, that also need to eat