I can tell you all about Piracy.

There are two Worlds out there.

Published on March 12, 2008 By adnauseam In Consumer Issues

I read Brad's blog with interest and he makes many important points. I thought I'd tell you what piracy in the third World is like. I live in the Middle East . Most computers bought here have copies of Windows that serve a warning every time you open your computer: "This copy of Windows is not authentic. Please contact us for advice." Fact is every computer leaving the shop has a non-authentic copy of Windows pre-installed. The same applies to Microsoft office.

It is the norm in Egypt and probably in Thailand, India and many other countries. Some computer game sellers will admit that the disks they sell are copied. As for music you will be lucky if you can find an original copyrighted CD. The fact is that laws in the First World are not policed as well as you may like in the Third World. Outside the USA, UK and Europe there is a free market and anything goes.Ergo, you get cheap copies of anything in a market where people make a living from it. Laws in the Middle East are tightening up but until then Sammy the seller can sell what he likes.After all, making a living is more important than whether the Back Street Boys get their royalties.

I know it is unfair but it is a reality here!

Comments

Zoomba

on Mar 12, 2008

What folks don't realize though is that if a region of the world pirates everything they possibly can, be it because of culture, economy or whatever, that they're cutting themselves out of the overall market. If Egypt has a 90% piracy rate (made up number) why should anyone attempt to make a product, or tailor a product to Egypt?

What you'll see is places like this get left behind entirely as digital media continues to advance. Which is fine if they want to consume music, movies and games done entirely in English. But I'm always seeing complaints when something isn't offered in someone's native langauge. Why should anyone make a Thai translation if they won't even make back the cost of translating?

One of the main points I got from the original article was that piracy will happen, that's unaviodable. The result is you don't make a product for those people. If that means not making a product for the Middle East, that's what it means. If piracy is the norm somewhere, the consequence is that those places will forever have to deal with content in other languages, not designed or targeted to their culture etc.

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