On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 04:57:15PM +0800, Zak B. Elep wrote: > Indeed. Which begs the question: Why are these channels operating at > all? Answer: it is because we have nowhere else to get money for our > daily bread. Or so it seems, because most of us have no motivation at > all to improve ourselves both for our own benefit and for the benefit > of humanity.
The reason why the black market for contraband software, movies, music, and so forth exists at all is because the prices for legitimately licensed versions of these works is much greater than what the market will bear, in this country anyway. Few people can afford PhP 25,000 for a legitimate Microsoft Office, and getting legitimate licenses for every installed MS Office installation would most likely bankrupt many small to medium-scale businesses, to say nothing of individuals. Also, copyright enforcement is not incredibly strict here. If copyright enforcement became a lot more stringent than it is today, I imagine people would migrate to OpenOffice in droves. -- The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. http://stormwyrm.blogspot.com/ -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
