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Re: Warez - A Rebuttal




>
>He says a lot of folks couldn't make music if it weren't for free 
>software.
>My response is that we always get those things we truly want... you'd pay
>for the software if you *had to* because you love making music. You'd
*find*
>a way to buy it or "coerce" someone into buying it for you. :-) The
>temptation is software that is very easy to steal - and the reality is 
>that
>we simply *justify* not paying money for it because it's easy to do so and
>we want to keep that money for ourselves. That's really what's 
>happening...
>I wonder how many of you are fully taking in that deep thought? If Gregor
>couldn't steal software like he can't steal hardware, he'd find a way to
buy
>what he needed if he loved music enough. He found a way to buy the 
>hardware
>right? So, it's that simple. C'mon folks - we are not talking thousands of
>dollars here! Is there anyone who would disagree with this?


My Hardware (and what i paid for):

Juno 106 - 200$
Alesis quadraverb - 150$
Yamaha SU700 - 1200 $
AWE32 - 50$

It took me 4 years to put this together. If you sum up logic, sound forge,
acid and waves npp for example you get a figure which is higher. It would
take me more then 4 years to get the software i need. we don't need to talk
about thousands of $, just one thousand $. Microsoft recently had a special
offer here. Students could buy a licensed copy of visual studio for around
10$. Before that lots of students used a pirated copy. I don't know anybody
now who doesn't have a licensed one. The reason why they bought visual
studio (although they already had a pirated one) is that they could afford
it and that they knew the software.



>Gregor says that the folks who make and sell pirated software are the ones
>who are stealing. Let me tell you something, Gregor... stealing is when 
>you
>take something for your own that doesn't belong to you. Now, I don't deny
>that the commercial pirates are stealing, but I say to you point blank --
>*YOU* are stealing too! The difference between you and them is one of
>degree, not of kind.


True, if there wouldn't be a demand for it, there wouldn't be ppl who would
sell pirated stuff.

>Let me tell all of you something: *People* create software.
>Can you see that this is, effectively, what you're doing? I challenge you
to
>take a moment and think about this now.

I understand your point. The problem here is described as a "freerider
problem" in the economic science. There are people who pay for the bus and
there are others who sneak past the driver i.e. freeriders. Yes, i'm a
freerider in the software department, but I pay for the bus:)) what I 
wanted
to stress here is that we sort of have a financial threshold. well, mine is
lower then yours obviously.


>Gregor argues that he's a "bedroom musician" and so his theft doesn't hurt
>anybody. But if no one paid then there wouldn't be any software right? So
>somebody has to pay. Who gave any of you theives out there the right not 
>to
>have to pay, while I have to? What makes you better than me? Aren't we all
>fundamentally equal as human beings? It's a selfish, arrogant person who
>steals.


That's also one of the problems which occur with freeriding. Eventually the
group who's paying becomes unsatisfied. They ask themselves: why do i need
to pay if others aren't? why do i have to cover other ppl's expenses? that
trully is a problem because eventually no one would pay for the software 
and
software companies could only file in for bankruptcy.
One answer could be that buying software is actually a progressive consume
tax. That would sort of justify my actions. But i'm not sticking behind it
as i don't agree with that.
Other answer or solution could be that software companies would do a little
bit of research, tried to investigate the actual demand, etc... This could
probably result in lower prices, but higher revenues. the highest price tag
doesn't always mean the highest net income. I would also be prepared to 
sign
a deal with music software developers which would guarantee them royalties
from "my possible hits". If one in million lands a great hit and the
software companies would get some royalties, wouldn't that make them 
richer,
a lot richer?

>Let me give you an extreme example: let's imagine for a moment that
>Gregor writes a song and it becomes a #1 hit worldwide. However, Gregor
>doesn't make one red cent off of his incredibly good fortune because
>everyone pirates his song and no one pays for it. Can anyone honestly say
to
>me that Gregor is going to happy with this?

No, i wouldn't be happy. I admit it. But OTOH, I had some concerts. I 
mostly
played in places which are trying to survive from one day to another. They
offered me a fee, but i always played for free. So, I could roughly say 
that
I didn't pay for the tools, so i didn't charge the work. I can't say what
would happen "on a higher level". all i can say is a speculation.

>But how can you write honest music if you are not an honest person?


Can you explain me how can you tell if the music is honest when you hit 
play
on the CD?

greetings,

gregor