Piracy and anti piracy in India

India is a breeding ground for piracy.

It says here that 65% of all software used is pirated.
*trak.in/tags/business/2010/05/12/software-piracy-india/

This report places India as the fourth largest global hub of online film piracy
*www.cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/piracy-studies-india

What are your views on online film piracy and anti-piracy.

for eg: Britain has The three strikes Law

In many countries, they have anti p2p organizations, stringent laws etc..
Sometimes, downloaders get letters for copyright infringement.They get heavily fined.
what has India got? Can the government even track people who are downloading using torrents etc..?

First need is getting basic "Law and Order" in order. Piracy is still not a threat India.

Real threats are Terrorists, Naxals, Maos and others. We are not that rich in resources that we can deploy so much manpower for anti-piracy only.

detoknight said:
It says here that 65% of all software used is pirated.
*trak.in/tags/business/2010/05/12/software-piracy-india/

NoI asume it's 90%. I haven't seen anyone till now who's using a genuine paid software.

In those 90% people 50% dosen't know that they have to pay for the software they are using, they always insist on pirated office, windows OS,Nero,PowerDVD,Anti Virus etc. etc. etc. cause their vendors install them for free.

If i ask them if they have money they can go for genuine I get only reply 'DHAT'

Gauravs90 said:
NoI asume it's 90%. I haven't seen anyone till now who's using a genuine paid software.

I wonder where do you live my friend...a village! (no offence meant, just pun intended!)
You are saying that the report published by two foremost organisations is wrong and your assumption is right (BTW assume breaks up into "a$$"+"u"+"me" so never assume)...hehe

All, in my friend circle, have genuine softwares (OS atleast) or they use freewares whenever required...
thanks to Digit that they have initiated a revolution by spreading awareness through various articles published by them...because of which I stopped using pirated s/w long ago. What's more, I know that I am not alone...you will find hundreds like me in this forum

gagan007 said:
I wonder where do you live my friend...a village! (no offence meant, just pun intended!)
You are saying that the report published by two foremost organisations is wrong and your assumption is right (BTW assume breaks up into "a$$"+"u"+"me" so never assume)...hehe

All, in my friend circle, have genuine softwares (OS atleast) or they use freewares whenever required...
thanks to Digit that they have initiated a revolution by spreading awareness through various articles published by them...because of which I stopped using pirated s/w long ago. What's more, I know that I am not alone...you will find hundreds like me in this forum

I said that I assume not that I really meant it :grin:

it may be more or less but i never believe these organization fully. how can they say that it's only 65% users use pirated software how can they calculate?. There's no fool proof method of doing correct survey.They do only for publicity that's all.

Yaah thats correct that nowdays max people use genuine OS...but thats it...90% of the MS Office used r pirated, photoshop, autocad, winzip,norton antivirus are the most common pirated software on anyones comp...

no my friend...the scenario has changed....Open Office, GIMP, 7zip and Avast have taken place of pirated versions of softwares mentioned by you...

i agree that these surveys can never depict the actual picture but they are very close. do you think the census is 100% accurate, NO..but it reaches the actual number...
surveys like these are often targeted at a selected number of people...I am sure many of you have given surveys on MS, Nokia etc sites...apart from this data collected from many things you do...the online forms you fill (for registration) etc. is always used for similar purposes...which may not be accurate, but always close to it...

Companies like Microsoft have finally realised that providing their products at a more economical rate it the only way to tackle piracy.
With stricter anti-piracy laws and also crackdowns it makes more sense to shift to Open sourse software. Open Office caters to all the basic needs and also supports MS Office formats...
For day to day regular needs Irfanview with plugins and Paint .NET suffice as photo editors...
Windows Movie maker has a load of good features...
Avast 5 and Avira AntiVir kick the butts of premium AV Softwares...
With all this I think we must spread awareness of Opensource rather than piracy...

guys there lies a simple answer.... MAC could not be pirated coz Apple never wanted that... the hardware based security and other features. Microsoft realises that piracy is providing it the publicity it wants without any additional cost. The day MS decides of making it a fort like OS its not difficult for them. This way, they target the commercial and popular org only if such org use pirated copies. For a person using pirated copy of MS office in a country like ours, its least of the concerns of MS.

Now its only left to you if you want to be morally correct or just be a part of piracy. It will take long for our gov to initiate a drive against piracy. There are much serious issues as brought out by rhitwick.

@gagan007...yaah as I am a IT graduate and knowledgeable user I now use gimp,irfan view,winrar,avira antivir....but 80% people I know still believe that a cracked Norton, winzip, Photoshop are the best one...and they have it :))

And yes if I install these freeware they say that I am giving then complicated and low quality software as they r used to the old pirated ones :grin:

I find the whole hype and hoopla about piracy quite distasteful. India is a country where people are still stuggling to survive on a day-to-day basis. It is a country where we don't have enough legal resources to fight real crimes - like rape, murder, robbery and the like. And then we have corporates whining they they are earning a little less because apparently, 'potential customers' are pirating softwares instead of buying them.

The same MNCs have no ethical standards when they exploit cheap labour in foreign countries, just because they can. So we Indians will extend the same courtesies to them, because WE can.

I am sorry...I do not think that those who struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis have anything to do with piracy....poverty is a different issue altogether...
you cannot justify piracy like this (or anyway)...IMHO piracy is stealing...

Piracy is SHARING in India :nanananana:

and not stealing :twisted:

sujoyp said:
Piracy is SHARING in India and not stealing

is it ? I dont think so. Piracy is a crime in every respect. India has got other problems to deal with that's why Govt cant pay much attention to it. Latest Reports "PM says that we will not be able to handle Inflation till december this year". So see, Central Govt have their own priorities as already been stated above. IMO :-
Promote Opensource and Stop piracy !!!

sujoyp said:
Piracy is SHARING in India and not stealing

The laws are applicable here as well i.e. the EULA

I dont use the term stealing with piracy tbh. Stealing is when you take something from somebody. However piracy is more like breaking an agreement or something.
However no way it should be called "Sharing". Because you are insulting the meaning of the word "Sharing".

---------- Post added at 01:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:52 PM ----------

Aberforth said:
I find the whole hype and hoopla about piracy quite distasteful.

It is distasteful indeed.

India is a country where people are still stuggling to survive on a day-to-day basis. It is a country where we don't have enough legal resources to fight real crimes - like rape, murder, robbery and the like.

Corporates can easily have legal resources themselves Nothing to do with fighting real crimes.

And then we have corporates whining they they are earning a little less because apparently, 'potential customers' are pirating softwares instead of buying them.

The corporates are just making excuses for the shareholders. It's a fact that piracy helps corporates to sell their software as their software is freely marketed by word of mouth.

The same MNCs have no ethical standards when they exploit cheap labour in foreign countries, just because they can. So we Indians will extend the same courtesies to them, because WE can.

And in turn because YOU CAN:
(1) Even if you don't pay for their software, you use them (for free apparently)
(2) Due to so many people using such software for FREE it almost becomes like a standard. Case in point: MS Office, Adobe Photoshop
(3) Due to it being almost as a standard, even true consumers actually buy and and that is potentially more than what would have been brought as without piracy, the software wouldn't have got free marketing.
(4) As because of widespread use, of the software it becomes de-facto and no body even tries to use legal and open source software, and dismiss those software just because a $1000 software can do what it can't do (a software which YOU CAN get for free)
(5) Thus because of widespread use the software gets even more sales, and they actually derive all the benefit because YOU CAN.

I always wonder how much market share MS Office would have in India in case it couldn't have been possibly pirated. I bet in single digit figures.

I always wonder how much market share MS Office would have in India in case it couldn't have been possibly pirated. I bet in single digit figures.

May be less coz 150$ for an office suite(home edition), well that is not acc. to the appetite of ppl here.

Ook soo u people really think piracy is not sharing...I told this coz we share songs, movies, softwares, ebooks, and what not...all the digital content comes under this.
Using copied PS2 games also comes under it. And playing it is pushing piracy.

I guss if u even share a song using bluetooth u r increasing piracy.

If u share notes given by ur tution sir to someone who has not paid for that....its also piracy :mrgreen:

U just cant say that u can stop piracy by using freeware...piracy is everywhere.

Any copyrighted thing u share in exchange of money with out the consent of the creator is piracy.

Its not a piracy until and unless money is involved, or neither of you actually gained profit money wise in the whole process.

sujoyp said:
Ook soo u people really think piracy is not sharing...I told this coz we share songs, movies, softwares, ebooks, and what not...all the digital content comes under this.
Using copied PS2 games also comes under it. And playing it is pushing piracy.

Yup it is piracy.

Note I always say Piracy is NOT stealing.

I guss if u even share a song using bluetooth u r increasing piracy.

Depends on the license of the song.

If u share notes given by ur tution sir to someone who has not paid for that....its also piracy

Depends on the notes, if it is not copyrighted or Creative Commons license, it's not piracy. However photocopying from book to distribute among friends will be technically called piracy.

See I have no problem with Piracy as phenomenon with books, songs and movies. The only problem I have with Software as people unknowingly help those corporate giants by pirating by giving free marketing. This stalls growth of FOSS. In another case I have problem with games being pirated since I feel people should really buy the games they like after trying the demos. (I don't mind movies and music piracy because I despise DRM and hate those giant movie and music labels. Not pirating doesn't help the artistes in themselves either)
I know my stance is somewhat hypocritical but that's he way I feel.

U just cant say that u can stop piracy by using freeware...piracy is everywhere.

Freeware and Open Source provide plenty of great alternatives which you should use. Why do something illegal when you can do the same legally?
I don't have a single pirated software in my PC. Use Linux as my primary OS and got Windows Server 2008 for free via Microsoft Deamspark (which I use only for games). And I play free or original games only. I do pirate movies and music though.

rhitwick said:
Any copyrighted thing u share in exchange of money with out the consent of the creator is piracy.

Its not a piracy until and unless money is involved, or neither of you actually gained profit money wise in the whole process.

OK soo u mean if I download a movie using torrent and distribute it among 100 friends its not piracy...LOL
Bro its piracy coz the movie lost its chance to gain money from those 100 people in form of tickets or dvd/vcd...soo money is involved!!

Note I always say Piracy is NOT stealing.

hey then if its not stealing it can be quoted as sharing :mrgreen:

..LOL

Depends on the license of the song.

what do u mean by this??...no song is free to distribute...u r cutting their profits by distributing...same as software

I am just saying that we all do some sort of piracy knowingly or un-knowingly...and its just impossible to control

Y should I pay Rs.200 for a song cd when I can get 10 movie songs for Rs.20...as simple as this :-o

sujoyp said:
OK soo u mean if I download a movie using torrent and distribute it among 100 friends its not piracy...LOL
Bro its piracy coz the movie lost its chance to gain money from those 100 people in form of tickets or dvd/vcd...soo money is involved!!

It is piracy but money is not lost since I can bet none of those 100 people would buy a DVD and those who go to theatres go there anyway.

hey then if its not stealing it can be quoted as sharing..LOL

Sharing which involves breaking laws

what do u mean by this??...no song is free to distribute...u r cutting their profits by distributing...same as software

*magnatune.com/
*www.jamendo.com/en/

I am just saying that we all do some sort of piracy knowingly or un-knowingly...and its just impossible to control

That's true to some extent. But we should avoid piracy wherever we can. Not have "hahaha I will pirraatee it, im so cool" attitude.

Liverpool_fan said:
I dont use the term stealing with piracy tbh. Stealing is when you take something from somebody. However piracy is more like breaking an agreement or something.

Exactly. Digital piracy is simply a breach of an agreement. One has to be really brainwashed to think it is stealing, in the real sense, no one actually gets robbed.
 
To curb piracy in India, corporates will need police and court system as a backbone, which is esentially hogging up an already overtaxed system, which could have been used for fighting REAL crimes.

I always read in magazines and newspaper that movie and music company r loosing billions due to piracy...

lets take an example .....I make a movie and sell it to u for 400 and u make 50 copies of it and sell it for total 1000(Rs.20 )each...shouldn't I feel robbed.

Actually the cost of digital product like music cd and movie dvd is soo high that its not worth spending that much on them.

My bro in US said that u can watch movie at home for 1-2 dollar only...if they charge Rs.20 for a movie then we too can watch them without making pirated dvds.

Big Media Houses and Corporates involved are reporting massive profits every year and movies are being declared blockbusters and grossing $$$$ and what not and they cry that their products/movies are being pirated!!!!!!!! They must have gone bankrupt or worked as staff in my office

Software piracy helps these big corporate houses and if they are serious about stopping piracy, who are stopping them? Cant they make thei software un-crackable?

Windows piracy is quite high in the Asian countries (almost 90%) which means 90% less revenue for MS and despite that Bill Gates was the richest man for so long.
Just imagine if each and every computer had a legal version of Windows. what influence he might have had in this world. Competition is very essential for quality products and prevent exploitation.

@LFC: No point having that smug by declaring you dont use any pirated softwares and then mentioning about the movies andsic piracy done by yourself . Most of us are in this category.
I find it a little meaningless to buy the whole audio cd when it has only 1 good song.

There is a very big reason why piracy is high in Asian countries.. The Per Capita Income in Asia (except Japan) is low.. whereas in the West it is high.. If you've ever bought a computer book like Fedora Bible, Beginning Linux programming etc etc either from Wrox India or Wiley's India, it is clearly mentioned that those books are meant for Eastern Economy edition, and are not to be sold outside specified areas. For eg, I got this brand new Fedora Linux Bible 2010 for Rs. 530 (from Flipkart) whereas the price in the US is around Rs. 3000 (mentioned on the book)

The software publishers need to apply the same theory to the software. I don't think that 90% of computer users in India can pay as high as Rs. 70k for Photoshop.. that is ridiculous..

hellknight said:
The software publishers need to apply the same theory to the software. I don't think that 90% of computer users in India can pay as high as Rs. 70k for Photoshop.. that is ridiculous..

completely agree, this could be a solution....

a_rahim said:
Big Media Houses and Corporates involved are reporting massive profits every year and movies are being declared blockbusters and grossing $$$$ and what not and they cry that their products/movies are being pirated!!!!!!!! They must have gone bankrupt or worked as staff in my office

Software piracy helps these big corporate houses and if they are serious about stopping piracy, who are stopping them? Cant they make thei software un-crackable?

Windows piracy is quite high in the Asian countries (almost 90%) which means 90% less revenue for MS and despite that Bill Gates was the richest man for so long.
Just imagine if each and every computer had a legal version of Windows. what influence he might have had in this world. Competition is very essential for quality products and prevent exploitation.

I am aghast and sorry to hear that intellects like you are "justifying" piracy!!! No one forces you to use Windows (by you I do not mean "you" but all those using pirated versions of s/w, in general)...you can always use Linux...you are accusing Bill Gates as if he is holding the supply of your oxygen and charging every ounce of it....

what if production houses are earning $$$$...it is still their product, their creation, which they have full right of...just because they are earning a lot doesn't mean you can watch their movie without paying them.

@sujoyp: In India too, thanks to Moser Baer, we have access to all original movies accessible at dirt cheap rates legally

gagan007 said:
In India too, thanks to Moser Baer, we have access to all original movies accessible at dirt cheap rates legally

They only sell old movies. Why i will buy an old movie which i've seen it in tv many times.

sujoyp said:
My bro in US said that u can watch movie at home for 1-2 dollar only...if they charge Rs.20 for a movie then we too can watch them without making pirated dvds.

Isn't rs 20 too low for original movie. They should sell movie CD's for rs50 and DVD for rs75. Then anyone from middle class will think to buy.

gagan007 said:
completely agree, this could be a solution....

I am aghast and sorry to hear that intellects like you are "justifying" piracy!!! No one forces you to use Windows (by you I do not mean "you" but all those using pirated versions of s/w, in general)...you can always use Linux...you are accusing Bill Gates as if he is holding the supply of your oxygen and charging every ounce of it....

what if production houses are earning $$$$...it is still their product, their creation, which they have full right of...just because they are earning a lot doesn't mean you can watch their movie without paying them.

@sujoyp: In India too, thanks to Moser Baer, we have access to all original movies accessible at dirt cheap rates legally

^Did I? I'm sure you agree with the non-competitive activities of a certain company.
Windows didn't got the market share just because their product was good; it did because users didn't had any choice.
Just tell me how many outside the geek world have even heard of something like a non-windows OS? Most of them think that the small "e" icon on their Quick Launch bar is THE INTERNET.
Users should be given a choice; example of EU giving an option to users to install non-IE browsers and in 60% case do install FF/Opera etc. I think thats a high % of users opting to try new thing.

As for the $$ they earn and me feeling jealous according to you; take the example of US. Land of opportunities and law and order and patent crap and YET piracy is rampant in that region. Why? Per Capita income if very high and YET users dont wanna pay for the software.

All I am trying to highlight the hypocrisi]y of the companies and us both.

@hellknight: I agree to your business model completely; differential pricing of the software is a must for different region.

Ultimate consumer is the king and i dont know why this cant be applied to the software world..

The biggest hindrance of adopting FOSS is the resistance to change by us; a natural reaction.

Isn't rs 20 too low for original movie. They should sell movie CD's for rs50 and DVD for rs75. Then anyone from middle class will think to buy.

OOh I forgot to mention that I was talking about DTH system...just like Tata Sky started...u pay them Rs.75 and u can watch movie at home...but choice here is too less..5-10 movie max
In US u could select from a big list and watch it at home by DTH at a cost of around 2 Dollar...and HD have different rate...it can easily tackle movie piracy if given cheap like RS.20-30 in India

^Wait before this DTH service providers milk the cow nicely before shifting focus to other services. Time is not right at the moment

sujoyp, you will not rest until the movies are screened free...would you?

If we take our family out for a movie in a theater it nearly costs 200/head (talking about b'lore)...compared to that 75 is too less. but our mentality is if we can get something for free then why not take it...this attitude is wrong.
I am not an agent working for production houses or any software (product based) industry, but I still strongly feel that piracy is "not right". it is like depriving someone of his legal right...
Consumer is king...that doesn't mean he has right to consume without paying. In every industry consumer does pay, without which there will be no service!

gagan007 said:
sujoyp, you will not rest until the movies are screened free...would you?

If we take our family out for a movie in a theater it nearly costs 200/head (talking about b'lore)...compared to that 75 is too less. but our mentality is if we can get something for free then why not take it...this attitude is wrong.
I am not an agent working for production houses or any software (product based) industry, but I still strongly feel that piracy is "not right". it is like depriving someone of his legal right...
Consumer is king...that doesn't mean he has right to consume without paying. In every industry consumer does pay, without which there will be no service!

DVD's of movies are released after theaters stop screening so it doesn't effect them. and rs75 is justified for a dvd seeing the economic condition of india.
DVD's of hit films are available at rs400 and Blue-rays for rs800. Who will buy them?

you feel Rs.20 is too less ok then make it Rs.40 :mrgreen:

....but right now if I can watch a pirated movie for free y should i bother to pay even Rs.75..

I really appreciate the idea of movie on demand which can be useful but only if it comes in common mans budget...
Theater charges r too much nowdays...its not worth paying for a movie untill its a blockbuster like 3 idiots..i wouldn't pay RS.1000 for Avtar 3d its just insanity :shock:

.

I agree there thousand bucks for a movie is totally not worth it...actually speaking (only IMHO) more than Rs. 100 is way too much to be spent on a movie (as most of them are waste of time rather than entertainment)....but you cannot watch 3D at home also (unless you have purchased the recently launched Samsung 3D LED TV, which is a pain)...

but sujoy you have to change your mindset...see the "free" movie is not offered to you, you are downloading that without the "owner's" consent...take it this way...you go to someone's house...you see a Rs. 100 note lying on their sofa which they dnt know about...you would definitely feel not to pick that and put it in your pocket...right?

^^ hey I am not saying i want see free movie...I can pay them Rs.40 every time (after downloading i can watch 100 times but still)...

I am saying if they decrease the rate definitely the piracy thing will decrease..

Similarly what cost do they incur to make a music CD...y should we pay Rs.200 for a single movie song when we get 10 movie songs for Rs.20.....Just make it affordable..and definitely people will think once to get it...

These companies r asking for too much money and it is leading to piracy..

before I used to go theater 4 time a month now only once ...

Even I have stopped going to theaters...its damn expensive...that too when the movie is cr@p, you feel as if it would have been better to tear the money into tiny bits and throw in air..

but the companies really spend money whenever they produce music/movies...think of all the labor cost, studio cost and the compensation paid to the artists...it all amounts to the price of the CD/DVD...

I donno y they r paid soo much...think akshay kumar get paid 7-8 crore for those crappy films, even they spend tens of crore on wasteful publicity..
And for all that we have to pay them more...not justified :evil:

Any film contain 1-2 songs which r bearable...remaining r just like jabardasti ka timepass :mrgreen:

...they want Rs.200 for that :shock:

Let it be...we Indians r intelligent enough to justify where to spend how much...Nobody can take an extra penny from us :mrgreen:

B

Very Bad i HAVE to use pirated software because i have lots of money on paypal, hard earned money, which cannot be used to buy softwares and movies. Very bad.

So i switched to linux and is using ubuntu now.

bigdaddy486 said:
Very Bad i HAVE to use pirated software because i have lots of money on paypal, hard earned money, which cannot be used to buy softwares. Very bad.

So i switched to linux and is using ubuntu now.

I'm totally clueless on what u r posting since last few days. What do they even mean? And why do u even post 'em?

Is he spamming, anyone? has 226 posts but such trolls :flu-mad:

bigdaddy486 said:
Very Bad i HAVE to use pirated software because i have lots of money on paypal, hard earned money, which cannot be used to buy softwares. Very bad.

So i switched to linux and is using ubuntu now.

WTF!!?Are you high,son?

F

Rules of supply and demand are fairly simple to understand, and the root of piracy lies in that.

PRICE
Why is it that a high end, grade A, 2DVD set of a game like GTA4 can retail for 499 in India on release but Mass Effect 2 has to be 999 and Dragon Age has to be 1299? Obviously, someone is not pricing their products correctly, and is trying to make a killing at the customer's expense. I'll pay for my entertainment, but I'm not here to satisfy someone's greed.
Why does a 700Mb English Music CD still costs 400-600 bucks? The technology has not evolved over this time. I remember buying my first ever CD for exactly the same amount almost eight years ago. Since then, the prices of the media, recording equipment, playback equipment...ie the price of everything electronic has gone down. Am I expected to pay for the music I'm buying or for the private jets and expensive holidays of the record execs?
3500$ for Maya? 700$ for Photoshop? Seriously? If it wasn’t for piracy, these products wouldn’t even BE industry standards!
AVAILABILITY
Why is it that most (if not all) hollywood movies are released months after their American/European release in my town? Because it's a smaller market? Does that give the distributors the right to treat me as a second-class citizen? The average indian has to spend a higher percentage of his income on a movie ticket than an average US citizen. So why must I wait longer for the same product?
Have a look at the games available on piratebay ordered by seeders… how many of them can you find at your local PlanetM? Unless you’re in the metros, chances are that you’ll never play those games if you wait for originals. It’s been 4 months since Bioshock 2 was released. It’s still not available where I live.
DRM
Steam, SecuROM, Assassins Creed 2. Enough said.
Don’t get me wrong. I DON’T support piracy. But putting the blame on USERS of pirated software/music/films/games is, IMHO, moronic. And don’t blame the pirates either! Markets abhor a vacuum. If there is a gap between demand and supply, SOMEONE WILL FILL IT. Pirates are merely providing a service that the original creators are unable or unwilling to.
Personally, my conscience is clean even though I use pirated software. I try enough not to. I have bought my Windows7 and half my games. I started using Blender and Gimp when I found out about them, getting rid of my pirated Photoshop and Maya. I watched Avatar in 3D in an Imax. BUT… I also have downloaded mp3s, movies and some games. Anyone who calls me a thief for that is an idiot who sees the world in black and white and has the IQ of an egg. Or he’s on the MPAA/RIAA payroll.

^^U have a very valid point...thats the reason I say y should we pay for the greed of movie or music company...

like MS had made an Office student edition with simple tools...and at a much lesser budget...others can too...I cant live without MS Office...and I tried open office which is not upto the ease of use...but I cant pay 9k for the whole package....soo a budget package is always welcome

i loved what laptop companies r doing ....giving away original OS and including the price beforehand...at least its making OS legal in laptops...

I'd like to make a point.

@gagan007 here, in Bombay, a movie for a family of 4 = 1500+ Rs expenditure. Now, there's also the risk that the movie may turn out to be horrible, and 1.5k down the drain.

On the other hand, even by merely observing the movie's activity in the torrent world, we can judge its worth. Added bonus that you dont spend a pie AND the movie theatre wont be able to charge a bomb for refreshments.

On the software front, its a touchy issue. We want to use the best available there is, yet, the "best" is generally expensive. Companies have to pay the developers for their work, so they cant afford to pay them in peanuts, and so, jack up the software price.

In my opinion, what they fail to see is that by reducing costs, you are inviting more people to buy, and that should cover the development cost AND induce profits. Which is preferred? 3 sales of 15000/- each or 10-12 sales of 1500/- each in a day? Definitely the latter, as it generates popularity.

GTA IV is a prime example of this ideology, sales boosted to the skies when it was priced at just 500bucks. It was definitely better to buy the game and feel proud of buying original software at such a great rate, rather than wait for eons to download a 15gb rip.

B

rhitwick said:
I'm totally clueless on what u r posting since last few days. What do they even mean? And why do u even post 'em?

Is he spamming, anyone? has 226 posts but such trolls :flu-mad:

Was talking abt piracy. Why i switched to Piracy.

Dude, i have like 3k on my paypal. But no online shops accept paypal.. :/
Amazon does, but it donot ship to India. I mean WTF!!

fieldgunner said:
Rules of supply and demand are fairly simple to understand, and the root of piracy lies in that.

PRICE
Why is it that a high end, grade A, 2DVD set of a game like GTA4 can retail for 499 in India on release but Mass Effect 2 has to be 999 and Dragon Age has to be 1299? Obviously, someone is not pricing their products correctly, and is trying to make a killing at the customer's expense. I'll pay for my entertainment, but I'm not here to satisfy someone's greed.
Why does a 700Mb English Music CD still costs 400-600 bucks? The technology has not evolved over this time. I remember buying my first ever CD for exactly the same amount almost eight years ago. Since then, the prices of the media, recording equipment, playback equipment...ie the price of everything electronic has gone down. Am I expected to pay for the music I'm buying or for the private jets and expensive holidays of the record execs?
3500$ for Maya? 700$ for Photoshop? Seriously? If it wasn’t for piracy, these products wouldn’t even BE industry standards!
AVAILABILITY
Why is it that most (if not all) hollywood movies are released months after their American/European release in my town? Because it's a smaller market? Does that give the distributors the right to treat me as a second-class citizen? The average indian has to spend a higher percentage of his income on a movie ticket than an average US citizen. So why must I wait longer for the same product?
Have a look at the games available on piratebay ordered by seeders… how many of them can you find at your local PlanetM? Unless you’re in the metros, chances are that you’ll never play those games if you wait for originals. It’s been 4 months since Bioshock 2 was released. It’s still not available where I live.
DRM
Steam, SecuROM, Assassins Creed 2. Enough said.
Don’t get me wrong. I DON’T support piracy. But putting the blame on USERS of pirated software/music/films/games is, IMHO, moronic. And don’t blame the pirates either! Markets abhor a vacuum. If there is a gap between demand and supply, SOMEONE WILL FILL IT. Pirates are merely providing a service that the original creators are unable or unwilling to.
Personally, my conscience is clean even though I use pirated software. I try enough not to. I have bought my Windows7 and half my games. I started using Blender and Gimp when I found out about them, getting rid of my pirated Photoshop and Maya. I watched Avatar in 3D in an Imax. BUT… I also have downloaded mp3s, movies and some games. Anyone who calls me a thief for that is an idiot who sees the world in black and white and has the IQ of an egg. Or he’s on the MPAA/RIAA payroll.

Very well said. In fact I will rather pirate a movie than buy DRM-imbibed content for music and movies.
DRM is fine (IMO) if implemented well in games though. Games unlike movies have to make sales in PCs and consoles than theatres. Steam is one which I rather like than the likes of SecuROM,etc.

---------- Post added at 10:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 AM ----------

thewisecrab said:
In my opinion, what they fail to see is that by reducing costs, you are inviting more people to buy, and that should cover the development cost AND induce profits. Which is preferred? 3 sales of 15000/- each or 10-12 sales of 1500/- each in a day? Definitely the latter, as it generates popularity.

How about 1 sale of 15000 and 10,000 pirated copies? Even more popularity.

^^
Yeah, but that wont convert into sales. Sales will increase if price is low, and a low price always guarantees popularity. Thats better than popularity through piracy

I do not have enough knowledge on why CDs/DVDs are priced so high (although one argument I already gave in my previous reply)...but it is them to decide. You cannot quote a price on someone else's product and you cannot justify stealing someone else's property by stating that you do not think that product is suitably priced.

I feel sad to read such responses here as I believe most of the members here are avid Digit readers. In such a case Digit has failed miserably in atleast one of the fronts which they have maintained since starting i.e. a piracy free India.

Now, let me ask you, why do you need Photoshop/MS Office and Adobe Flash like softwares? Just to show-off I guess. Because if you have a business requirement you should not have any issues in purchasing as ultimately this cost will be added to the solution you are providing to your customers. A home user does not need such softwares IMO.

About movies and songs...they are not a matter of life and death. If you can't afford it do not purchase it...period. What is problem in waiting for a proper DVD release (as I said earlier about Moser Baer who are doing an excellent job in India) if you can't afford to go to theaters or you think it is overly priced?

I still fail to see how does piracy increases the popularity of a product. You purchase something because you need it not because it is popular.

gagan007 said:
I feel sad to read such responses here as I believe most of the members here are avid Digit readers. In such a case Digit has failed miserably in atleast one of the fronts which they have maintained since starting i.e. a piracy free India.

Yet Digit puts all the tutorials, tips articles,webinars on programs costing tens of thousands or worse several lakhs, which all people will conveniently pirate and so clumsily ignore any of the open source or free alternative. So I dismiss any kind of "effort" put up by Digit since the there's no effort.

---------- Post added at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

gagan007 said:
I still fail to see how does piracy increases the popularity of a product. You purchase something because you need it not because it is popular.

Free marketing?

sujoyp said:
I donno y they r paid soo much...think akshay kumar get paid 7-8 crore for those crappy films, even they spend tens of crore on wasteful publicity..
And for all that we have to pay them more...not justified

Any film contain 1-2 songs which r bearable...remaining r just like jabardasti ka timepass...they want Rs.200 for that

Let it be...we Indians r intelligent enough to justify where to spend how much...Nobody can take an extra penny from us

+1 Well said. I buy original CD/DVD only if the movie/music/game is worth IMO. :twisted:

---------- Post added at 12:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------

fieldgunner said:
Rules of supply and demand are fairly simple to understand, and the root of piracy lies in that.

PRICE
Why is it that a high end, grade A, 2DVD set of a game like GTA4 can retail for 499 in India on release but Mass Effect 2 has to be 999 and Dragon Age has to be 1299? Obviously, someone is not pricing their products correctly, and is trying to make a killing at the customer's expense. I'll pay for my entertainment, but I'm not here to satisfy someone's greed.
Why does a 700Mb English Music CD still costs 400-600 bucks? The technology has not evolved over this time. I remember buying my first ever CD for exactly the same amount almost eight years ago. Since then, the prices of the media, recording equipment, playback equipment...ie the price of everything electronic has gone down. Am I expected to pay for the music I'm buying or for the private jets and expensive holidays of the record execs?
3500$ for Maya? 700$ for Photoshop? Seriously? If it wasn’t for piracy, these products wouldn’t even BE industry standards!
AVAILABILITY
Why is it that most (if not all) hollywood movies are released months after their American/European release in my town? Because it's a smaller market? Does that give the distributors the right to treat me as a second-class citizen? The average indian has to spend a higher percentage of his income on a movie ticket than an average US citizen. So why must I wait longer for the same product?
Have a look at the games available on piratebay ordered by seeders… how many of them can you find at your local PlanetM? Unless you’re in the metros, chances are that you’ll never play those games if you wait for originals. It’s been 4 months since Bioshock 2 was released. It’s still not available where I live.
DRM
Steam, SecuROM, Assassins Creed 2. Enough said.
Don’t get me wrong. I DON’T support piracy. But putting the blame on USERS of pirated software/music/films/games is, IMHO, moronic. And don’t blame the pirates either! Markets abhor a vacuum. If there is a gap between demand and supply, SOMEONE WILL FILL IT. Pirates are merely providing a service that the original creators are unable or unwilling to.
Personally, my conscience is clean even though I use pirated software. I try enough not to. I have bought my Windows7 and half my games. I started using Blender and Gimp when I found out about them, getting rid of my pirated Photoshop and Maya. I watched Avatar in 3D in an Imax. BUT… I also have downloaded mp3s, movies and some games. Anyone who calls me a thief for that is an idiot who sees the world in black and white and has the IQ of an egg. Or he’s on the MPAA/RIAA payroll.

+1 Nothing to say.........just well worded.........totally agree..... :+1:

---------- Post added at 12:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 AM ----------

Liverpool_fan said:
How about 1 sale of 15000 and 10,000 pirated copies? Even more popularity.

---------- Post added at 12:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 AM ----------

Liverpool_fan said:
Free marketing?

yup

i feel 'try before you buy' is a concept worth tryin