BritTim Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 The Windows XP multi lingual user interface pack is only available to corporate users (or via an MSDN universal subscription: basically something used by companies doing serious software development). Thus, you are likely to find it hard to get a copy. The multi lingual user interface pack for MS Office, however, is freely available to everyone. You can easily get either a licensed or pirated copy. On software piracy, there is a legal and an ethical side to consider. On the ethical side, I have always felt that products used for business should be paid for. For individuals who would suffer economic hardship paying for specific software products, I consider use of pirated versions to be reasonable. My argument is that such users would probably find an alternative if they needed to pay. Thus, in practice, the software's owner is not losing anything by this piracy. Indeed, they may benefit if improved financial circumstances allows some users to pay later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danish30 Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Yes, I agree when we talk about legitimate games, dvd's and music cd's many are much cheaper than where I come from. Many original dvd moves can be bought as cheap as 99 baht each, and many original games 200-500 baht. When as cheap as that I wouldn't bother to pick up a pirated one. But then again other seem to be at the same price tag as everywhere else in the world, with those I would choose the pirated copy. I think if they lowered the price of all the originals there would be much less pirate ones sold. I think what the WTO is doing with drugs is a landmark decision and a very slippery slope. Who's to say what a country can now argue is a vital thing that warrants ignoring patents/copyrights? It's a very dangerous precedent in my opinion. I think the decision is ok when we are talking about countries where these drugs would be out of reach for the general population if sold at normal cost. But one has to remember that the only protection of the investment medical corporations who developed and researched the drugs has, is their interlectual property rights. If they didn't have this protection then they wouldn't invest billions in research and no progress would be made. The WTO decision is quite controversial and definately not something the patent organisations such as WIPO accepts easily. I don't think it will get out of hand because there are many international treaties and organisations on interlectual property rights, Thailand is as member of many of those as well which means they have to follow the same rules. Best regards, Danish30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritTim Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 it's unfair that something like an Oracle license costs the same no matter where in the world you are located Actually, some companies do vary their pricing depending on market, but (get this) will often charge more in small markets like Thailand because they claim (with some justification) that per customer support costs are higher. The usual term they use is "transfer pricing". It is not socially enlightened, but I guess these are commercial companies. Best solution: stick to open source solutions, like Linux and PostgresSQL, where you get the basic product for free and can buy your own local support according to your means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sky brow Posted August 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Basically I agree with you.If using the software in a business you pay a retail price for it.The business makes money and the software is a tool which the business uses to make that money.For personal use,I think the software is way over priced for the average joe,and obviously why there is such a huge market for pirate copies. sky brow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Hi, About 6-7 years ago I was at a computer demo party in Europe. The company which sold SoftImage (VERY expensive 3D software) was also there, and they were giving away their software to everybody that asked! I asked them why they did this, the reply was that there is no way any of us (mostly students) could ever afford the software (think $1000s). However, by them giving it for free we got the chance to use it, and gain experience in it. When any of us would then later work for an animation company we would most likely recommend their software if asked. The animation company would buy the software since they could not risk using an illegal copy. So, by giving away their software they lost nothing, but potentially increased their marketshare amongst those that do buy software like this. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritTim Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 The company which sold SoftImage (VERY expensive 3D software) was also there, and they were giving away their software to everybody that asked! A very smart move on their part. Note, by the way, that in a very tough market where a majority of their competitors have gone under, SoftImage is still very much alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 On software piracy, there is a legal and an ethical side to consider. On the ethical side, I have always felt that products used for business should be paid for. For individuals who would suffer economic hardship paying for specific software products, I consider use of pirated versions to be reasonable. My argument is that such users would probably find an alternative if they needed to pay. Thus, in practice, the software's owner is not losing anything by this piracy. Indeed, they may benefit if improved financial circumstances allows some users to pay later. I pretty much agree with this, I mean if software is a tool and you use that tool in your work to make some money you should pay for it, either with a use license or by paying for competent service. If a business faces a hardship by paying for licensed software than maybe they should try out the low cost alternatives. Its not as if they aren't available in abundance. My take on private end users is that productivity software, as opposed to entertainment software should be available at the lowest possible price so that people use it, become familiar with it, and as a reult are more productive when they sit down in front of a computer at work. In the case of small markets like Thailand free software seems like a more attractive alternative, sure there is Thai support for some versions of Windows and maybe even some versions of Mac, but what happens when one of these companies decide its not profitable? The localization work for Linux/Unix can done by people who aren't motivated by profit before or after a commercial enterprise takes an interest. In the case of free software in a place like Thailand you have free competing against stolen so people will chose stolen because its familiar. Or it has applications that they need. However if free has the applications you need, and for most people it does, free is the better choice simply by not being the primary target of worms, virus, adware, spyware and all those annoying "this is an un registered version of blah blah blah..." pop ups. Aside from the actuall payment of a fee all the endless registration and verification makes fee licensed software the last choice for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sky brow Posted August 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 That sure is smart marketing.And we all find ourselves asking others for good software to use or recommending good software to others.If some of it wasnt free( legal or not )then we dont get the experience of using something that is latest technology.And a lot of the interest for me in computing is that experience of technology cheers sky brow. :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 Fair enough, but I just wonder if it's just a matter of time before the illegal software situation becomes legal. An interesting precedent is what's happening now with certain types of drugs. It looks as if things may be going in the opposite direction in europe at the moment read the Latest News section of this software patent resistors site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 Interesting they advocate Amazon's One Click Shopping patent. That's got to be the most ridiculous patent ever that no one can make a way to sell a product that only takes one click! Those kind of patents scare me. For Thailand though, cheap copies of rolex's, ralph lauren's and software dont' seem on the way out despite occasional rhetoric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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