May 23, 2001, 1:50pm

So once again, the BSA (Business Software Alliance) releases it's amazing piracy losses report.

They claim that worldwide, major software manufacturers have lost $11.8 billion dollars due to software piracy. Of course, this number is complete bullshit.

First, it assumes that every pirated software copy out there would be paid for if it wasn't pirated. This, of course, is completely false. If a person could not obtain a pirated copy of Photoshop, I don't see too many of these "pirates" dropping $1000 Cdn for a copy. I see maybe 5%, 10% doing so. The other 90% would simply do without.

Second, the way the study is conducted tends to really pad the numbers beyond the "everyone would buy if it wasn't pirated" thing that is going on here.

What is also ignored is how piracy has helped worldwide software sales. It is a generally accepted assumption that Microsoft wouldn't be anything like they are today (a monopoly with hundreds of millions installed base for the OS, software) if it wasn't for piracy - Microsoft Windows is one of the most pirated pieces of software on the planet - everything from making copies of the legit office disks to downloading images off the web. This increase in the OS piracy has had MAJOR benefits for Microsoft... the legit/upgrade path.

Case in point: My first copy of Windows was Windows 3.0. I admit I "stole" a copy of the floppies from my office, and installed it on my home machine - a 386 SX 20 machine with 8mb of memory. Since then (as I glance over my shoulder at my software cabinet), I have legally bought (or obtained through hardware purchases), some 17 different versions of Windows, from Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to Windows 2000 Professional and Server editions. Just those 17 different copies have meant about some $2500 or more of my money into Microsoft's coffers. All based on a decision by me back in 1993 to go PC instead of Mac. Based on my first workings of a GUI called Windows 3.0.

Another case in point. My first copy of Photoshop was 3.0, and was, ahem, pirated. I couldn't afford it, it was so bloody expensive. But I soon discovered I needed some tech support from the program, and the manual would have been nice (PS is so bloody complex), so I saved up the money and bought a student edition of 4 for $280 Cdn. Since then, I've bought 2 copies of 5 (upgrade, one full version), 2 upgrades of 5.5, 2 upgrades of 6, and 1 more full version of 6. Total dough sent Adobe's way? About $4000. I will say that there is a possibility that PS is running on one or two more computers than I have licenses for, but at $4000 investment (so far), I believe the company has gotten more than plenty of my money.

The BSA is so full of shit, it makes me cringe whenever these numbers come out. And now you have Microsoft, long the benefactor of pirating (they acknowledge this themselves) instituting an arcane and highly dubious "registration" process for their new XP software, in an effort to "stem" piracy. I figure that since they benefited as a company on a massive scale from piracy over the last 15 years, they now want their to have their cake and eat it too. I hope this really backfires in their face.

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Mixelania

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