Software piracy thrives in China

Despite assurances from China's president, just about any software can be found on Beijing's streets.

The story "Software piracy thrives in China" published April 19, 2006 at 5:37 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[birdguynews]

ridiculously high prices

$200+ USD for Windows XP? No wonder no one wants to use legitimate software. It would be like MS charging $2000+ for 1 license for Windows in the USA. $200 for a copy of Windows is not realistic for the standard of living in China.

[birdguynews]

ridiculously high prices

$200+ USD for Windows XP? No wonder no one wants to use legitimate software. It would be like MS charging $2000+ for 1 license for Windows in the USA. $200 for a copy of Windows is not realistic for the standard of living in China.

[209979377489953107664053243186]

Piracy is alive and kicking in the ole USA

This is a pretty uphill battle for MS - I get spam at least once a week offering MS and Adobe products for a tenth of the market cost. The only way to get around this, maybe, is to switch to SAAS (software as a service) but I think people like having Word on their computer.

Hybrid SAAS in the email security market, like Taceo, make the software itself free, but the authentication service is web based, and that's what you pay for...http://www.essentialsecurity.com/products.htm

[209979377489953107664053243186]

Piracy is alive and kicking in the ole USA

This is a pretty uphill battle for MS - I get spam at least once a week offering MS and Adobe products for a tenth of the market cost. The only way to get around this, maybe, is to switch to SAAS (software as a service) but I think people like having Word on their computer.

Hybrid SAAS in the email security market, like Taceo, make the software itself free, but the authentication service is web based, and that's what you pay for...http://www.essentialsecurity.com/products.htm

[heystoopid]

It's all relative!

Question, if you were paid the equivalent chinese wage rates(CIA world fact book march '06 shows guesstimated GDP of USD$6300 PP), would you buy any computer software/entertainment media based on our price structure, or one based on the value of a product tailored precisely to all that the local market can afford?

Here in the west we create a product, and then price it to the highest value we can, to gouge from the buying public, as we either bribe to create the laws to protect our interests(DMCA/Infinite free COPYRIGHT extensions) and then abuse the laws to eliminate fair competition or whistleblowers !(in the infamous SONY BMG rootkit affair, the A-V companies were threatened with legal action under a subsection of the DMCA, to stop them going public about how insecure the all infected computers had become and even in the end the bloggers forced M$ to do the right thing, but had it not become public knowledge, that particular nasty would remain infecting more computers than any nasty Email Virii!!!!!)

In the words of Gordon Gekko "Greed is Good", thus it's all relative, something that is outside the greedy grasp of your average Western CEO's mindset!

[heystoopid]

It's all relative!

Question, if you were paid the equivalent chinese wage rates(CIA world fact book march '06 shows guesstimated GDP of USD$6300 PP), would you buy any computer software/entertainment media based on our price structure, or one based on the value of a product tailored precisely to all that the local market can afford?

Here in the west we create a product, and then price it to the highest value we can, to gouge from the buying public, as we either bribe to create the laws to protect our interests(DMCA/Infinite free COPYRIGHT extensions) and then abuse the laws to eliminate fair competition or whistleblowers !(in the infamous SONY BMG rootkit affair, the A-V companies were threatened with legal action under a subsection of the DMCA, to stop them going public about how insecure the all infected computers had become and even in the end the bloggers forced M$ to do the right thing, but had it not become public knowledge, that particular nasty would remain infecting more computers than any nasty Email Virii!!!!!)

In the words of Gordon Gekko "Greed is Good", thus it's all relative, something that is outside the greedy grasp of your average Western CEO's mindset!

[doncarlosiv]

Piracy in China

The film piracy in China is than costing the Industry some 2 billion dollars. Tha's peanuts compared with the profit that many Western companiis make in the country by profiting from the low labour costs. We can see those cheap copies as an instrument of information (or propaganda) about Western life. Besides that there is the fact that those low prices are what an average Chinese with a salary of about $250/month can afford. Let them have fun!

Carlos Gandara
Sweden

[doncarlosiv]

Piracy in China

The film piracy in China is than costing the Industry some 2 billion dollars. Tha's peanuts compared with the profit that many Western companiis make in the country by profiting from the low labour costs. We can see those cheap copies as an instrument of information (or propaganda) about Western life. Besides that there is the fact that those low prices are what an average Chinese with a salary of about $250/month can afford. Let them have fun!

Carlos Gandara
Sweden