--- linuxers-request@mm.glug-bom.org wrote:
From: Roshan d_rosh2001@yahoo.co.in
--- mehul wrote:
Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
what is software piracy?
Something that MS doesn't care of?
Or possibly MS doesn't stretch its resources and money into going against it to the maximum or with highest priority. I hear, that's because, they want popularity, at cost some some losses. :-?
What MS wants or focuses its budget towards is not the issue, and going down that road is not worth the discussion.
Software is the set of rules that determines the utility of a piece of hardware, or many pieces of hardware when they (by the excellence of their software) work together. When that software is concealed, or the developer chooses to ignore the needs of different hardware users and prevents them from enjoying the same features, benefits etc, everyone loses, not just the users of that hardware.
Piracy is an artefact of a select section of society. This was true when the term piracy was applied to sea-going merchants, who were licensed by their governments to kill and plunder everyone else, and is no less true today, when a group of 13 countries some 120 years ago (led by global supernation Haiti, in case you mistakenly thought this was all about superpowers) signed an agreement that is even today still being debated (the ink just won't dry).
MS has chosen to work in the world of proprietary software, and this is a business decision of theirs. They are clinging to it, long after bigger or more impactful IT companies like IBM and Intel have seen the value of building businesses that do not pivot on the proprietary software spike. If they choose to move away from this stance, it will not affect the essential value of 'open' or 'free' software (just tags or jargon that have no more intrinsic value than the word 'proprietary').
Vickram
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