In a “going clean” article about software piracy in Zimbabwe, Garikai last week challenged readers to say what software they have pirated and, more importantly, why they had resorted to piracy for their software needs. We get a lot of interesting comments to most articles here and this one was one of such piece, so we though we’d share one of the interesting responses we got. It’s by a reader called Dogstar and it goes:
Software piracy is all linked to the political environment we are in. I wont go into the affairs of it in detail and this is not about ZPF or MDC but about the climate we live in. Who cares if you pirate? Who cares if you copy Tuku’s new album? Download movies via torrents or some warez site? Really, who cares? The police? The government? BSA? You business partner? Your company? Your boss? With all the amount of corruption and fraud taking place left right and center, do you really believe that software piracy will disappear?
I remember reading an article on Iraq during Saddam’s days. As soon as a movie is released in US, a pirated copy is broadcasted on local TV. Harry Porter, Terminator all became daily shows on telly whilst everyone else around the world formed huge queues to watch at their cinemas. The cost of software is high compared to what the consumer can afford to purchase. Asking a school to purchase M$ licenses and you will be laughed at. They will even suggest pirating it before you even submit a quote of the software.i wont touch on the cost of buying [Microsoft] Exchange in Zim… 🙁
The lack of business ethics and not valuing one’s work has been lost here. Consumer means business means economy which in turn looks at the political climate. And unfortunately, software piracy, like corruption, has now been firmly entrenched in our society.
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10 comments
Thanks for bringing up this issue. My concern is about music piracy. As a responsible citizen and genuine music lover, I care immensely if Tuku’s music is being pirated and sold for a $1 on the pavements of 1st street. I think Government must also care because there should be an enormous amount of revenue lost from uncollected VAT. Every responsible person must care…
Well Said! Corruption and a poor work ethic are very well entrenched into the culture.
Leadership starts at the top, the HEAD, not the LED! If the powers that be don’t care, why should they expect anyone else to care?
i use pirate software, pirated games not because i want to, but because i am forced to. I have never been able to understand why microsoft couldn’t have a different pricing structure for Africa? i would love to have genuine software and not worry about switching off updates and have the freedom to play online, the issue is not us the Zimbabwean consumer its these corporates that only think the 1st world is the only market in the world. If today Microsoft said i can buy windows 8 @ $100.00 i would the first one. the other issue is the process of purchasing. You can’t but the software online and download it, imagine trying to download 3GB of data? yes you can buy hard copies but they fedex/DHL hit yo with their charges and then Zimra hits you with duty, so unfortunately its not a choice to have pirated software its the only option….unless you are super rich!
If they do not recognize our value and desire for their product… what other option is there?
If they do not recognize our value and desire for their product… what other option is there?
the idea that there is no option but to use pirated software..is just a cop out. i can bet you right now, that you’ve spent alot more money just on hardware upgrades for the “high” spec hardware you need to play most of these games that you have pirated. i know this from experience… if people can spend +$300 dollars on a decent GPU.. then why cant you spend money on buying a legit version of an OS?
just a quick look online, windows 7 pro can be bought from laptops direct in harare for $295. the same windows 7 pro can be bought on amazon.com for $244.15. so its actually not that much more expensive to buy in zim from a distributor. games can be bought and shipped from SA using a prepaid mastercard.. which can be shipped here…. or you could even use steam as well.
my other point is, if pirated ISO images were not so easily available as they are now… then you would actually have no choice but to go out and buy it. This not only gives you legit software.. but you will also support local businesses.
The point that’s being made is not about the single individual that CAN afford to have a bank account to have an international credit/debit card with 3D security to buy online but everyone else, yes i would rather spend that $300 on the graphic card than on the software because i only have $300 and there is no other option of having the graphics card and with the software there is. Its like saying why bother buying a PC for $800 if you cant then afford to buy Office because after you spent $800 surely you can spend an extra $200-300 to buy Office. your other point of saying if ISO images weren’t made so easily available there would be no choice, yes there would be no choice and the choice would be not to buy it because i can’t afford it! Okay lets look at Console games guys most people that have an Xbox or a PS3 only have 3 or four titles because they can’t afford to buy more, you see them at the flea market looking at the titles and wishing they had that extra $40- $60 to buy the titles and that’s why you see guys having to rent or exchange their games, because they can’t afford it. Another point is do you think people enjoy buying cam rips movies? If there was another option to buy a legit full HD quality movies at a reasonable price? yes every society has a few rotten apples that even if say Oliver Mutukudzi said his CD would be sold for $2 that would still look for a pirated copy, But a majority of us sensible people would still pay for the genuine thing given the opportunity of having fat wallets.
Piracy is here to stay…with all the worlds great developers no one seems to be motivated enough to come up with a piracy proof method of technology, and if they do, some young cracker sitting in his bedroom in Norway will crack that within hours of release! I think its time for the music industry to take a page from the Jamaicans. Most of the artist actually release the music themselves for free download. The logic being that the more people get access to his music the more people attend shows where he is guaranteed to make money if his music is good. Bollywood makes lots of movies a year and charges cents to watch them, despite this one of their biggest stars Shah Rukh Khan is a multimillionaire. The stars in these examples work hard for their money! Their industries are lean(no excess of middlemen chowing free money and adding to the final cost of the product)
this is the way it should be.