Tech developers lose a lot of money when users choose to use a pirated copy of the software they have made instead of buying it. Even though companies have been trying their best to prevent piracy, most software programs end up becoming available for free within a few days of them being launched. We try to find out what motivates people to pirate software.
Buying software costs money
Even today, computers are luxury goods that cost a lot of money. Most businesses can deduct the cost of buying software from their taxes but the same luxury isn’t available to members of the public. Since most high end software costs a lot of money, people are tempted to obtain a pirated copy of the software instead of paying for it.
Cost against perceived value
The fact that tech companies have raked in billions in the last decade alone makes the public believe that they are unfairly being asked to pay for software which may be way overpriced to begin with. Hence, when a pirated copy of the software is available for free, users prefer to obtain it instead of buying it.
It feels like you’re sticking it to “the man”
Like a regular sea pirate, the software pirate too knows that obtaining and distributing illegitimate copies of software is illegal. Most companies invest a lot of money in DRM and trying to ensure pirates can distribute their software and pirate get a huge ego boost out of being able to “stick it to the man”.
Internet makes it easy to pirate software
The very nature of the internet, software technology and the current state of DRM is also a huge contributor to software piracy. It is very easy to copy and distribute pirated software since there is no deterrent to prevent people from obtaining and using pirated software.
