Software Piracy in India (Caught on camera)
You already know software piracy is rampant in India and China, right? And you’ll be thinking there’s nothing new in this article, but hang on for a minute. When I visited some vendors acting as a buyer I was a bit surprised by their collection. They were selling every major software for $1. I’ve even managed to get some shots for you. They got their hands on Vista Ultimate the day it was released. But whats interesting is the vendors are short of Mac softwares. While every vendor had a copy of Vista Ultimate, there were very few sporting Mac OS X. I visited approximately 25 vendors, and only one of them was able to produce pirated OS X Tiger. The major reason is, almost everybody in India uses Windows, so obviously theres more demand for it than Mac. There should be some other reason also which I can’t think of because even there are few buyers for Maya, but the vendors (all of them) were selling Maya full version CD. So I think Apple is at least better off than Microsoft as far as piracy is concern. But hey didn’t Microsoft says piracy is good for business, that current pirates will be their future customer? According to them, piracy makes you lose money today, but tomorrow the gain will definitely outshine losses. So I am bit confused, whats actually good, piracy or no-piracy?
On the lighter note I think it’s cheaper to fly to Bombay to get pirated softwares for $1 than buy originals in America. Just compare the prices – Maya starting price: $2199 which goes up to $7,199, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition: $799, Mac OS X Tiger: $129, Microsoft Office 2007: $499, Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate: $399, Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition: $368, Adobe Photoshop CS3: $649, Panda Internet Security 2007: $80 and return ticket to New York on Air India cost $1380.40 (including taxes in economy class). So next time when you are shopping for softwares, think of visiting Bombay or even if you want to buy Maya only, it’s better you travel to Bombay to get it at a negligible price.
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