SoftComplete wrote:
> Software piracy! Cracked serial numbers! Thousands of commercial
> products are posted on the warez sites and become available to all
> every day! Companies lose millions of dollars every year to software
> piracy, and faulty protection programs.


They don't lose near that much. You cannot get blood from a stone.
Just because someone circumvented copy-protection does not mean that
the originator LOST money. No money was ever invovled. If they
thought the product was reasonably priced they would have just bought
it in the first place. The reason people try to circumvent
copy-protection is because they are aghast at the price of the product,
and find it to be out of their reasonable spending range. If the person
were unable to defeat the copy protection, they would not automatically
fork up the money for the product, they would more than likely go
without, or seek a cheaper alternative.

Not saying what they are doing is RIGHT, just saying that it irritates
the hell out of me to hear that "Millions of dollars are lost to
piracy" because it just wasn't "lost" there was no money involved, and
the reason for further investigating circumvention hinges on the fact
that the person *WILL NOT* pay that much for it.

x1134x