WHAT!!

I was in (digital) art class yesterday, and the professor advised us to buy the software while we were still students cause once we lost the student discount, we would be paying much more. One thing led to another and she mentioned that the software costs about $ 500 with the discount, whereas without the discount, it costs more than $ 800. One of my classmates took the words out of my mouth when he yelled out: WHAT!!

Now, I know things work differently here, and that there are copyright laws and yada yada yada, but seriously, WHAT!!

I was just thinking about it, and I really dont think it it costs the company even 1/5 of that to make the software and distribute it. Exploitation is what this is.

Frankly, that is not what this post is about though. I really dont care how much they charge cause if I didnt know before taking this course, I know now that art is not for me. The thing is, everytime we have trade representatives from the US and European countries visit us, they want copyright laws to be enacted and enforced. Honestly, good luck with that!

If there are talented people, who need this software to study and use their talents to be a little more productive, to make a better life for themselves, they would require this software. Under no circumstances would it be possible for them to buy the original software, which costs more than how much most people earn in a year! So, their only option is to get the pirated copy, which would not cost more than $50. There is so much talk about helping to modernize countries that are lagging in development, but all that effort is wasted as long as these huge barriers exist.

If multinationals and their governments really want to stop the piracy, they need to be able to provide a real alternative that is viable and affordable. It is not that people want to steal, but that they are forced to.