Profits From Piracy

from the it-works dept

We've all heard the arguments before, but now Salon has an article discussing the idea that software piracy is part of what made Microsoft so successful, and they're starting to pay less attention to piracy in China because they realize this. The article explains the usual "network effects" arguments, that by flooding the market with illegal copies, people who can afford it have much more incentive to buy the same software. I agree with all of this, but find the article itself to be somewhat weakly written. First of all, it refers to the Apple iPod as an iPAC and then confuses the whole debate about "rip, mix, burn" saying that it was about that device. While I agree with the points in the article, I just wish it were better presented.

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