Pirated Software Per Computer Statistics

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The Economist has put up a chart today that shows pirated software per computer (by country) and the results are a bit surprising to say the least.

America and China lead the world in terms of total losses from piracy at $7.2 billion and $5.4 billion respectively. But when calculated according to the number of computers in each country a different picture emerges.
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Hmm.. I have to say that I am a little surprised about Iceland. If it weren’t so damn cold there, it might actually make a nice place to live! Or, at least the pirate community there is alive and well.
 
stonedwaldo420 said:
Hmm.. I have to say that I am a little surprised about Iceland. If it weren’t so damn cold there, it might actually make a nice place to live! Or, at least the pirate community there is alive and well.
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Iceland is green, Greenland is ice. But still cold, aye. :D
 
What a load, economists are so full of crap. And my mom's long time b/f is an Econ professor @ USC :p. How's the old saying? - There's lies, damned lies, and statistics? Economists like to seemingly pull things out of thin air and wow the hell out of people often by using complicated math and LOTS of graphs & bell curves and such. <- Took Macro and Micro and did fairly well incidentally; doesn't mean I liked it.

Pirate Vista Ultimate and you're damn near at the top of that list already.. And I can't speak for anyone else, but if I were running one such install, I'd probably have a number of other programs of dubious origin too... Net result the $262 figure is grossly understated. And as usual the overall economic impact numbers are always bullshit anyway - just because something retails for $xx, and I decide to pirate it doesn't mean they're lost out on one penny. If I'm pirating something, I'm in all likely-hood not to have purchased it in the first place.
 
That really wouldn't alter the list much at all. Remember, it's per computer in a given country. The fact that you pirate Vista is easily offset by the 60 people who don't (prolly getting it with their new Dells :rolleyes: ). After all that, you've got what, maybe $3 per computer? Even though I happen to have a rather large stash of computer software sitting around lacking reciepts, once it all averages out over every computer in America (not computer user, mind you) the actual numbers rise very little.
Seems to make sense to me that the poorer the country, the fewer people can legitimately buy software to bring the numbers down.
 
Yet us Americans, Canadians, and Europeans are getting the shaft when it comes to the RIAA, MPAA, and other media organizations.
 
To get to another country, an America-based country would have to sue via World Court, which is an amazing headache, and then you have foreign legal systems to deal with. Besides, those people pirating software have nothing to take, inasmuch as they live in some of the poorer countries on earth! Why not just sue everyone in the US, where everyone has enough money to settle out and the legal system seems content to just sit there.
</sarcastic rant>
 
Then microsoft should only sell their softwares to North America, China, Japan.... Even though china is still on the list the pirating will be much less! Also the #1 thing they need to do.......... is shut down all those pirate webesites!!! :p
 
Microsoft.. sell software to China... yeah right. They have been trying to do that for years. Problem with China is that 98% of the software they run is pirated. China has no need or desire to "purchase" legit software.

Getting back to the article, how do you justify and quantify those statistics? The article does not mention how it has gathered these statistics, but I guess since it is on the internet it "must be correct."

This article in my opinon is crap and only deserves mention for the irresponisble journalism that is now rampant.
 
kush said:
And as usual the overall economic impact numbers are always bullshit anyway - just because something retails for $xx, and I decide to pirate it doesn't mean they're lost out on one penny. If I'm pirating something, I'm in all likely-hood not to have purchased it in the first place.
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I agree with the rest of your post but this is just bad logic. The fact that you weren't going to buy it isn't how you calculate lost. How you calculate lost is 100 people using your product, 90 people paid, you "lost" the revenue of those 10 because they are using it without paying. Even if those 10 never would have paid or used the service, the fact is they are enjoying the fruits of your labor/product.
 
not that I condone piracy...but do these people honestly think that all of the people that have pirated software on their computers would have "bought" it as opposed to pirating it???
 
NiViK said:
not that I condone piracy...but do these people honestly think that all of the people that have pirated software on their computers would have "bought" it as opposed to pirating it???
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I am going to say a lot of the people running pirated version of windows play video games and since newer technology games cannot be run in Linux (for the most part at all due to DX9 and 10). So regarding Windows XP specifically, more often than not pirated installs are lost money for Microsoft.

Now regarding $500+ graphics software, very few people actually would buy those instead of pirating. Same with almost all music.
 
NiViK said:
not that I condone piracy...but do these people honestly think that all of the people that have pirated software on their computers would have "bought" it as opposed to pirating it???
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You must have not read the thread. Read my post a couple above yours.
 
Corporations that produce media buy the expensive media software. If they don't, they face the risk of liability (also, they have the money to buy it).
 
I know for a fact that the various versions of 3DS Max, Maya, Photoshop, Visual Studio, CAD and other wildly expensive soft ware I could never buy at 13 years and through high school that I downloaded would have never been bought. I wish people would not try to put a price on money lost due to piracy. :rolleyes:
 
Kristofff said:
I know for a fact that the various versions of 3DS Max, Maya, Photoshop, Visual Studio, CAD and other wildly expensive soft ware I could never buy at 13 years and through high school that I downloaded would have never been bought. I wish people would not try to put a price on money lost due to piracy. :rolleyes:
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You could always try the MSDNAA if your university is a member, or you could try Visual Studio Express Edition -- free.
 
Kristofff said:
I know for a fact that the various versions of 3DS Max, Maya, Photoshop, Visual Studio, CAD and other wildly expensive soft ware I could never buy at 13 years and through high school that I downloaded would have never been bought. I wish people would not try to put a price on money lost due to piracy. :rolleyes:
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Not to point any fingers, but it amuses me when people admit to something, and then wish everyone would just stop talking about it. ;) I know I'm guilty too (as I really don't own my copy of AutoCAD, even though I use it as a hobby AND a career), and that's exactly the reason people DO talk about it. Because some big company is losing money on the non-existent sales. Is it the worst problem out there? Far from it. Should it be tops on our list of "things to immediately go after"? Not likely. But do those companies still deserve to collect on their property? Yup. :)
 
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