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Half of PC users are pirates, says study
By Thom Holwerda on 2012-05-22 09:51:09
"Over half of PC users worldwide have admitted to using pirate software last year, according to a study by the trade group Business Software Alliance. BSA's ninth annual Global Software Piracy Study has shown a sharp increase in software piracy, especially among emerging economies. In the UK, more than one in four programs users installed in 2011 were unlicensed." If people decide en masse not to adhere to a law, said law is worth about as much as the paper it's written on. Laws become functional not because of the Queen's signature, but because the people decide to adhere to it. It's becoming ever clearer that as far as digital goods go, the law is not functional - for better or worse.
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RE[2]: Pirated = without DRM = no issues
By on 2012-05-22 18:57:51
bassbeast,

"this video really nails it"

Wow, what a temperament! But really, who of us haven't been in the same predicament? This year I was bitten by rosetta stone DRM, which isn't cheap but it was rendered useless without a crack. It's pathetic that companies think so little of their paying customers that they are willing to put them through this mess. The DRM they force upon us takes away fair use rights that we are legally entitled to (like simply running the software on our machines).

Software retailers (like newegg & staples here) explicitly deny refunds on opened/downloaded software that fails to run, so once you buy it your out the cost of the software whether it works or not.
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