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I come from an Eastern European country that is not as rich or well developed by western standards. It is nice, but far from the likes of, let’s say, France or Italy. Which means that the buying power of the average citizen was far lower than of those living in developed countries. It is better now, but I wish to discuss software piracy during the late 80s - early 90s and its positive consequences that can still be felt today.

The late 80s and early 90s: Computer smugglers ruled the day!

The first computers that I had were bought from some obscure guys who were making a living by smuggling them across the border. This was the rule, not the exception: If you wanted to buy a computer, you had to search the local newspaper’s classifieds for people who sold them - not used ones, but new ones. You could rarely find computer shops at all. If you were lucky to stumble upon one, all you could do is drool, because the prices were ridiculously high.

So the bootleggers were the only viable option. They were buying computers directly from the factories that made them. I remember that I bought my Amiga 500 from a semi-retarded guy who knew well how to drive a Porsche and smuggle stuff across the border, but I remember that both my friend and I detected his low IQ (we were in high school and he was under 30 years old). Fun all the way!

Legal software wasn’t available at all… so what

Not only people didn’t have enough money to buy original software, but you could rarely find a reseller at all. No wonder: How could anyone profit from selling software if no one was buying it, not even the companies, let alone individuals.

I was buying local computer magazines that reviewed programs and games that were available via software pirates only. Almost nothing legal could be found! And I seriously doubt that all those software reviews were written by testing out a legal version of the product.

How the computer experts of today came to be

Where I come from, there are many, many individuals who made it in the IT sector. I know many of them personally. Some were hackers that are now working for big telecom companies or in successful private companies. Some went to the Silicon Valley and made millions with successful start-ups. Many went abroad as much sought-after experts.

What they all had in common is that no one, but I say no one, ever had a legal piece of software during their self-taught formation period (there were no IT schools or courses at all). And I see no problem there.

Why let anyone waste their enormous potential just because he or she doesn’t have enough money to obtain legal software? Who has the right to decide who will get educated and who not? Today, all of these individuals either have their own companies with legal software or work at those who have it. Or simply buy laptops with pre-installed legal software. Which leads to the conclusion that…

Bill Gates and other software moguls should thank the software pirates

When Romanian president Basescu told Bill Gates that his country’s IT sector is well-developed thanks to piracy, he hit it right on spot. He was honest and told a simple truth: Software piracy helps develop the IT sector of undeveloped and poor countries.

I get really irritated when I hear company representatives utter phrases like “Each year, we have millions of dollars in losses because of software piracy”.

Please tell me how the fuck can you lose what you cannot possibly have in the first place? How can you lose money if the people who use pirated software can’t buy it at all? Imaginary sales? Gimme a break!

Consider this: If there were really an efficient way to stop people from using pirated software, what would happen? What would they do? They would switch to open source, you corporate retards! If a way existed to block people from using Windows they would switch to Linux in a matter of seconds!

And if a whole country used Linux, believe me, Microsoft would use any means available to force that country to switch to Windows. And thanks to software piracy, they can sell their products in those countries now. For fuck’s sake, they opened a Microsoft global technical center in Romania! Would that be possible if Romanians didn’t have access to pirated Windows?

So, before you open that greedy mouth of yours the next time you want to talk shit, think before you actually do it. You should be grateful to all those dudes who make pirated software available to poor countries. They are the ones who are doing something to help these countries develop themselves, not corporate assholes or corrupt politicans who just talk without actually taking any action at all.

Software piracy rules!

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