I have lived and worked off the beaten track. I know how casual people can be about legally copying or using software. China is reputed to be one of the most disrespectful countries for copyright. Recent numbers by the BSA and China show a decrease in illegal copying but there is a huge discrepancy in the magnitude. The BSA’s numbers are a bit “round” which suggests they may be pulled from thin air. If we correlate use of IE6 (23.8% in China) with illegal copying, China’s official numbers seem more reasonable.
If illegal copying is that low (38%) in China and M$’s revenue is as low (only 10% of usage paid) as Ballmer said, then use of GNU/Linux must be very high…
17519
12812
206
3
2
23981 
11884 
11736 
4664 
4286 
1643 
198 
14 
2 
0 
0 
0 
Out of your Microsoft hatred the Chinese government suddenly becomes more credible than the BSA. A typical Pogson.
Better go and ask Assad if he uses Linux. Then you can forgive him everything.
Viktor in this case I would suspect so. Thinking the Chinese government numbers are based on proper random sampling. The BSA numbers are based on places they audited when something was suspected wrong.
Ok neither I would call 100 percent trust-able but for method the Chinese government wins.
The BSA is not credible they have been caught world wide doing bogus numbers compared to real ground surveys.
oiaohm wrote, “The BSA numbers are based on places they audited when something was suspected wrong.”
Good point. It would be hard to remove that bias because the fraction of places with tattlers or not is unknown.
As a long time marketer of software products, I have come to the realization that so-called “piracy” is really of no concern unless the violator is actively selling the product to others. If people are merely using it through their own efforts, it is not anything to waste time trying to change.
The only thing that comes from elaborate security schemes is customer complaints for cases where a legitimate customer is having problems getting their system to work because they didn’t do something correctly or they lost their key device or code. You never hear from a pirate. They either get around your block or they use something else. They don’t ever give up and buy your product.
They were never a customer, so they are not really lost revenue. The best way to sell is to offer the customer, who actually needs your product and will benefit from its use, a fair price and a sense of being a reliable supplier who will take care of you in the future, protecting your investment in time and money.
Embedded in the FLOSS concept of marketing is that being free will cause the buyers to seize upon the FLOSS product due to its apparent economy. That may sway some at the bottom of the economic scale, but it is but a frail reed in the minds of those who are really dependent on something working well and in the future. If you have a dependency on something, you want the assurance that your supplier is dependable. Putting your fate into the hands of those with no apparent obligation to serve you is not something that most businesses are willing to do, regardless of price.
Viktor wrote:
“Out of your Microsoft hatred the Chinese government suddenly becomes more credible than the BSA.”
Clue bat for you Viktor, anybody is more credible than the BSA.