Microsoft: More Educated Consumers Pirate Less

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[citation][nom]FoShizzleDizzle[/nom]"Educate users" to pirate less? I am not supporting pirating but I'm afraid that what they really mean is "scare users" into pirating less by blowing the dangers as far out of proportion as possible.While I don't condone pirating I have a hard time condemning them as well. Hundreds of dollars to upgrade an OS, and it can only be installed on one machine? Perhaps making it so users aren't limited to legally installing a copy of a license to only one machine is a good way to make users go legit.[/citation]

You are an idiot.......Pirates are Pirates...Unless its free it doesn't matter how much you charge for it. I bet you even if Win7 was $30 people would still pirate it. Probably not as much, but still a big number. Look at the Apple apstore... most apps sell for $1-$10....they still get pirated (stolen) at about 90%..... Now all of you can see that only uneducated losers pirate software.
 
[citation][nom]homrqt[/nom]I think the more educated you are about IT, the processes, and the industry as a whole, the more likely you are to pirate. Those who don't, don't do so simply out of fear of consequences.[/citation]

I am very tech savvy and I don't pirate, because in my book it is theft. If I like something and want it, then I buy it. Well, most of the time, I did steal my last car.
 
I am by no means wealthy - and I find it hard to believe that so many people find windows **expensive**. An OEM purchase of home premium is $104 on newegg. This is NOT expensive.

What other complex system do you use every day for years that makes you more productive and that you purchased new that is THAT cheap? Car? Appliances? Phone (don't forget the plan)? None of it.

Sure there are free (and awesome) alternatives, but if you're going to the length of pirating, that must mean you need it because linux isn't a viable alternative. While I will say it would be nice if it could be installed on more than one machine, if I only need windows to game, I'll put it on my game rig and use Linux Mint on my laptop/media center if I only want to pay for one copy.

Don't be a leech -- buy something if you NEED/WANT it.
 
Microsoft: More Educated Consumers Pirate Less Yeah right. That's a crazy statement. I think it all has to do with the person . If you are smart you would have the knowledge to crack software . Maybe if you have a PHD you can afford the software..
 
[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]Is this a psychology trick to make people pirate less in order to believe themselves to be smarter now that they don't pirate as much?[/citation]

I do not know, but I have this saying ringing in my head for some odd reason. "A fool and his money are soon parted".

It is not foolish to buy 7 it is totally worth it, but statements about being an uneducated person in order to pirate it... Seems rather backwards. Most of the clueless people who use a machine would not know how to pirate anything unless there was a "pirating for Idiots" book.
 
Its the price of software vs. income. The inference here is that smarter consumers don't pirate because of some braniac epiphany. I don't think education is the causal link... it is available income. Example: An upgrade to Win7 + replacement apps (PSP, Pinnacle Studio, etc. ) COULD have cost me as much as $500 for a computer. But I bought Win7 pre-release, and go the other Free after rebate. If I didn't have the $$$$ to do the upgrade, I might have been more susceptible to the dark side. I upgraded some old apps to their Free-After-Rebate current versions, and swapped others (Office and Nero) for (free) Open Office and (free) Ashampoo Burning studio. Even with this approach, I had to front several hundred $$$ waiting for rebates. Not everyone can do that.

In short, I believe that it is money related. More education == more money, so educated people pirate less because their education has given them a bit more discretionary income that allows them to purchase.
 
Less educated users tend to be poorer, and the poorer you are, the more in need of free software one might be. but to a point. It takes some amount of knowledge know how to pirate, and the very poor/uneducated may not even have/need a computer.

Then as others have mentioned there are some things like music that even the well off/highly educated expect for free. There are also people that pirate (or dont pirate) out of principle.

The best place for exceptions to the rule would be the users @ a place like this. On both sides of the issue, people that read @ toms tend to know a thing or2 about computers regardless of education. I can imagine high school drop outs who are computer enthusiasts that are highly/self educated in computer tech. They dont fit into either mold. I could also imagine someone here who would pirate except they have a vested interest in software sales (ie, software salesperson)

the source of this study is still suspect IMHO
 
If you lower the price low enough such that you still make minimum profit (ie: don't be greedy), people will buy Win7. Look at it this way. I have WinXP and content with it... why should I shell out $100 for Win7 just to make it faster/better when I absolutely don't need them? Lower down the price to $50 then I'll thinking. $30 then I'll upgrade.
 
[citation][nom]mitch074[/nom]I consider myself an educated user - inasmuch as I read the base law articles concerning private property, copyright, patents, and then read a lot on software piracy legal precedents.Moreover I've been using, modifying, assembling, installing and repairing computers for even longer than THG existed.I've read several of Microsoft's EULA. And I've understood them.The more educated I got, the more I went looking for software that matched my needs; so, when my license of MS Office 2000 went stale, I got a replacement: OpenOffice.org.When my IE browser got too popup happy and got infected daily, I got a popup blocker. Firefox's.When I found out that Adobe asked for $600 for its new version and didn't allow for an update of my Photoshop 7 license, I switched. For the Gimp.When I discovered that my DVD player wouldn't work at with my new DVD burner, I changed media player. I got VLC.When I found out how DivX enforced their software license system, I switched to a less invasive one. I got Xvid.When I discovered ads on Windows .Net Passport Live MSN Messenger (is that the name?), I changed IM. I got Pidgin.And when I found out how good Vista was, I made a quick assessment of what software I was using, and decided to upgrade my XP to something better.So I switched to Linux.[/citation]
I absolutely love this reply! mitch074, thank you!
 
if these companies really want to stop piracy, they sould write a letter to every government out there that RAPES the income of all these hard working people. If people have more money, to the point where the don't constantly have to worry about it, they wont copy, they'll just buy it. While they are writting these letter they better make a million copies and send em to every private sector company out there.

I do find it humorous that MS is putting their 2 cents into this because without the mass pirating of Windows 9x, they would've never sold nearly as many legal copies as they did.
 
I've been saying this for years... Microsoft should make all versions of desktop OS available for FREE!!

They still can make money on CALs, Server and application licenses. It'll be an incentive for companies to deploy Windows more and just make sure they have enough CALs for the servers.

This also be a win for home users as they wouldn't have to pirate the software since it's free which would drastly cut down on malware that is embedded in the pirated versions.
 
[citation][nom]Antilycus[/nom]if these companies really want to stop piracy, they sould write a letter to every government out there that RAPES the income of all these hard working people. If people have more money, to the point where the don't constantly have to worry about it, they wont copy, they'll just buy it.[/citation]

Wow - this is diluted. Problem is no one knows how to purchase responsibly and save for...ANYTHING. The people who don't HAVE money now because they're living paycheck to paycheck would not have money if they doubled their salary. They'd just be "better consumers"
 
[citation][nom]LORD_ORION[/nom]FUD does not = education![/citation]
+1
In this case: "educated users" means "brainwashed by our corporate propaganda users"
 
In my experience, "uneducated" people don't pirate windows. That's not to say that all "educated" people pirate windows, that's obviously not true. But it's people who are "educated," or think they are, that pirate windows.
 
[citation][nom]megamanx00[/nom]Yeah I don't buy that one. How about not being so restrictive with those OEM copies of Windows huh? That would sure help.[/citation]

That would help bring the piracy statistics down, sure, but in reality, OEM software is being abused. OEM was never meant to be sold alone, yet many companies sell it with a stick of RAM or a cheap USB cable. OEM was meant to be sold with a complete system.

If anything, using a pirated version of Windows is a security risk. Windows updates patches countless potential exploits that malicious people routinely use to infect systems with malware or spyware.

As I say to some of my clients "It just cost you X$ to fix your computer because you downloaded a pirated song that was in fact a virus. For that much money, you could have bought a dozen real music CDs"
 
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