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Quote: If you needed a certain software package but could not afford it would you download the pirate software version?
NO, because I am a good honest Catholic girl who never steps a foot wrong.
Quote: Do you think people who download illegal software should be punished by law?
Depends on what sort of punishment you mean. Expand a little.
OK, I lied, i'm not Catholic.
Hmmm, new member asking who partakes in downloading pirate software.
All my software is legal guv'nor. 
If you download software illegally then that is a possible sale to the company lost - if a sale is lost then the company makes less profit.
Scale this up and a company could lose a considerable proportion of sales and as a result might have to upp their prices to counter the lost sales- which means I (the paying customer) am harmed as I have to pay more.
Further it could cause the company to have less money to invest in upgrading the existing package or developing a new line of products.
I see no reason why stealing a program online is any different from walking into a shop and stealing if of the self; and yet there seems to be this view that digital data (be it programs, wallpapers or photographs) is in some way free for all to use.
I have even seen some argue that its a try before you buy idea - that its not stealing as they intend to buy the product if its good enough. I don't know many shops that let you walk out of the front door without paying on the argument that you might come back and buy it if you like it.
Illegal Software Threads
Plenty of threads that cover the subject.
A can of worms that always turns nasty...... unfortunately
Game prices are mostly the same (maybe £5 more) than they were to start with and that was before CD rewriters and the big hacking craze.
As for the higher prices games sell to much smaller markets than music and films are aimed at so they tend to shift less units comparitivly. I won't even mention that films get additional revenue from the cinma releases and music tends to attract advertising bonuses as well - two things that games just don't have (though ads in games are something that EA (hissssss) is looking at).
Quote: How come a bunch of musicians can spend several weeks (or months) in an expensive recording studio and bang out the end product for £10, but a programmer (or bunch of) will charge £30 for a game or maybe £3k for some software?
Most software takes many more man-hours to produce than an album does, but one of the biggest costs in software is support. Not many people need to phone a helpdesk for support on how to play a CD.
but it works - films and music generally sell to much larger markets.
In more recent times games might have started selling more as computers become standard houshold items, but the market prices are already set.
Add that to the above comments regarding development time, post production support, online support and so forth and I can see why a game costs more.
Also its interesting to note that currently the time it takes for a game to go from £30 to £5 bargin bin is very very quick for many games - some can enter in a under a year if they don't sell enough. Music tend to stick at the £10-15 area for a good long while before the CDs are discounted
Blimey, I'd better go and lay down, I almost agree with most of what ChrisL has said.
I point I've made before and no amount of debate will ever change my opinion, is that if Joe Average is not going to stump up £500 for Photoshop CS4 or £2500 for Autocad 2009 ( as 2 examples ) So if Joe uses a pirated copy, it is not going to reduce the developers revenue stream, because Joe would never have bought it in the first place.
Its a little bit like the moral dilemma of giving homeless folk, all the supermarket's out of date food. They wouldn't have bought it anyway, so why throw it away. It's no loss to the Supermarket.
two types of people i blame for this!
the software company bosses for over pricing the software in the firstplace!
and the people who post the software on the internet for people to download if it wasnt there nobody would download it!!!
if CS3 was £75 how may people would but it? and get updates and stuff?
Only my view as i was pissed off that i had to buy CS3 at full price!!
Mk
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