How could a corporation make more money who has, or believed it has, 90% marketshare in some segment of the proprietary software market? One way is to release a free but mandatory upgrade to the software which confuses some percentage of the user base to pay you again for the software they have already purchased at least once. You could market it as a way to ensure users have only a genuine copy of your software and not some sort of altered copy. You could even herald it as the end of "software piracy" to bolster your stock price.

Of course, thinking about it a bit, you realize you would only want to reduce piracy if it means those people are paying you and not switching to some competitor. You need some way to bypass the authorization process for the real people who are "pirating" the software. You'll leave some discoverable hole in the authentication system and then downplay the significance once someone discovers it. So there needs to be some sort of backdoor for the people who simply can't or won't pay you. That'll keep them addicted to your software until you figure out some new way to make money from them. And, heck, if you play it right you can even track the people who figure out how to bypass your new authentication scheme. Maybe you could even give them special offers to entice them into paying; or pay more if they've not figured out how to prove to you that they've paid.

The news agencies will herald you as visionary for solving the "piracy problem" once and for all. The technical publications will agree that you have every right to ensure piracy is stamped out forever and ever amen. The people knowingly and illegally using your software without paying for it will sneer and grumble but not be affected by your restrictions at all. The users will curse you for the demon that you are. The programmers of the world will shake their heads at your antics while they continue to use software that they've built instead of your software. And they will give their software to everyone in the world without charge and encourage everyone to share their software with everyone.

Almost everyone agrees that software piracy is a terrible thing that must be stopped. However, a great many of us believe the definition of software piracy put forth by certain corporations is flawed. Just who are the real pirates? Those who want to be able to share their software and knowledge with the whole world or the gold digging mega-corporations who show up at their customer's virtual doorstep every few months demanding money and waving legal documents and spouting very real criminal and civil threats. Look up the definition of piracy and decide who you think is the pirate.

Disadvantage turned Advantage

You have the power to end the software piracy once and for all. Stop using software written by people who don't allow you to share. Stop using software written by people who don't trust you. Stop using software written by people who dance around screaming on a $40 million stage trying to impress you.

Here, order you and all of your friends a copy of Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu Linux comes to you at no charge and they even pay the shipping. What's the catch? Simply this, to reap the benefits of Free Software you'll have to decide to give up on your old proprietary software and your old way of thinking about software. Ubuntu Linux really is free to copy, share, and modify. It really doesn't cost you a cent. It costs you only the time it takes to learn about a whole new world of software.

Ubuntu and Linux and Free Software are part of a world without unfair restrictions. A world where you are in complete control of your knowledge and computers. A world without advertisments, annoying marketing pitches, viruses/trojans/worms, or whatever else that makes you want to throw your computer away. You want to stop those annoying software marketing pitches phone calls? Tell them you're using Linux and hear them slump back into their chair knowing they aren't going to pull a fast one on you.

Still aren't convinced that a Free World is one worth living in? Head on over to Wikipedia and see one small example of what the Free Software world has produced. Compare Wikipedia to Brittanica or any number of "proprietary" encyclopedias available on the market. Heck, compare it to Microsoft Encarta and see which one you'd rather use.

Labels: windows