Law Enforcement Fails To Combat Software Piracy

Ramblings

from the try-competition dept

Last week, the software industry made some predictable noises about wanting China to enforce piracy laws. The problem with this approach is that software piracy isn’t a legal issue, it’s an economic one. No amount of legal pressure will convince someone to spend a couple months’ salary on upgrading their operating system. Trying to crack down on sales will only push software more into the black market, hurting the legitimate partners within the country. If the industry actually wants to do something about piracy, it needs to look at ways of competing with pirates. Since additional copies of a program hardly cost anything to produce, why not give them out for free, or next to it. This helps to create a relationship with the user, while increasing the likelihood that they’ll come back for more software or support in the future. Eventually, as China becomes wealthier the economics will favor legitimate software, as it has everywhere else in the world. When that happens, it will really pay off to have some goodwill in the market.