[INTERESTING ARTICLE; See Page 8] Discussion: Thoughts on Piracy

[Your Computer]

Read what my friend said again, and he says, "curious to learn", as opposed to "required to learn". Sometimes people/students just want to get a product, and dissect the whole thing by themselves without any sort of organized class, or instruction. They simply want to prepare themselves for their future, or just have fun. Look at deviantArt, and Newgrounds. Now I have no idea about the actual statistics, but I would say there should be at least a considerable amount of people there who created their work, and learned how to do it with pirated software.

If piracy was completely halted, these people would not be able to create their own artistic work, and Adobe doesn't really need to care, because the majority of these people would be doing it on their free time on their own computers, and would very rarely have a large impact on the actual commercial market. Without piracy, we could be very well denied these works.

Whether it be "curious to learn" or "just for fun," it does not follow that it would be impossible for anyone to learn the software without piracy. And if we were to consider those who look to make a career out of working with said software, pirating the software, especially for said reasons, implies that they will fail at making a career out of using the software. Without education or experience equivalent to education, no wise business would hire the individual, lest the business seeks to fail. Indeed, they would not have a large impact on the market. It is not surprising to see a lot of the work being posted on the internet as if it were simply for display.

Plus, if a person be so incompetent in art without image- or sound-manipulation software, then perhaps they are designed to fail. How do you think people manage to create a work of art without software? You require this knowledge of the past to master everything the software provides. Without it, you'll be blown away by the competition. If pirating software implies a higher chance of failure of making a large impact on the market, why argue that piracy is (or can be) beneficial?

If piracy is stopped Adobe could still very well STILL not provide a free version of the software, as the main buyers will still be companies, and the official schools that teach it. Most of these facilities will typically buy a whole suite of the software for their computers which are then in turn used by the students/employees. The average consumer never did contribute a substantial amount to their earnings because of the price.

Schools and business would be perfectly fine reusing older versions of software. This would force companies like Adobe to either reconsider their prices or increase quality for their products to justify the price or both. Plus, Adobe gives discounts to schools and students for most of their products, and their upgrade prices are pretty reasonable. A free version of their products is not required. And what about an individual who never had to purchase the product because their school or job provided it for them?