[FM Discuss] why you should stop using pirated software and learn to love freedom

[adam hyde]

hi,

I was thinking of sending this to a few lists populated by educators
that support free software (iDC, Rhizome, Fibreculture, nettime
etc)...comments welcome 


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Ever pirated software? Most people I know have done this and felt fine
about it. Downloading a cracked copy of Photoshop feels ok, or
installing Windows and looking at a serialz site is something that
doesn't raise much of an issue to many people. Often the software they
need is just too expensive, they are used to it or need it or want to
try it, and can't afford the expensive licensing fee, 

Students do this a lot - how can a first year design student actually
afford Adobe Creative Suite? Many can't. Its also true in business,
although in my experience sooner or later most people in business buy
the software either out of a sense of moral obligation or fear of being
caught. 

So this seems ok. I mean, it seems to be actually tolerated by software
companies. The film industry might bust a student for illegally
downloading a movie, but software companies tend to be a little more
lenient. Why make bad press when you know a student will eventually get
a job and come good. In fact its great that Universities teach their
products in the first place. This is how a tool becomes an industry
standard - so no need to kick up a fuss. Actually, software companies
can very easily justify the use of unlicensed software used by
students as a marketing cost. 

While some might object to the role Universities play in criminalising
their students and playing the role of out-sourced marketing
departments for proprietary software companies, thats not the real
problem. 

I don't mean that educators are just wrong to assume teaching
proprietary software gets students jobs. That seems obviously stupid. We all know that teaching a
tool doesn't make you a good crafts person. Teaching the craft makes
you a good crafts person. Tools come into it, but tools change,
especially in any industry that uses software (which is every
industry). Paradigms shift and industry fashions change. Sometimes a
dominant player is over-run by a new comer, or, more often, the vendors
themselves change their own tools either to get you to buy the new
version, or (less commonly) to make their software better. Nothing is
stable in software, so knowing software concepts is much more important
than knowing which tool bar to click. 

However, while poorly equipping their students for the real world is
probably pretty high on the list of known sins for educators, I'm not
an academic, I'm in the Free Software business. When these actions
effect Free Software I feel the pain more acutely. Its a simple
product of being normally self absorbed. When pirated software is
taught I feel the impact more keenly when it directly effects me. 

My job is partly about promoting the adoption of free software,
and so when I see pirated software being taught in educational
institutions I feel obliged to point out that pirated software hurts
Free Software way more than it hurts Proprietary Software. 

Pirated software hinders the understanding, acceptance, distribution
and uptake of Free Software while simultaneously promoting proprietary
software. Its as simple as that. 

If you teach pirated software then you are not a supporter of the
principles and practice of Free Software. This is true whether you run
Ubuntu on your personal laptop or not.

Teaching pirated software, while providing a fantastic marketing
opportunity for proprietary software vendors, criminalising students,
and poorly equipping them for their craft, is also joining the fight
against Free Software.

I would say it actually goes further than that but I was trying to keep
my arguments less ideologically driven and more pragmatic. I also need
to ponder it more...something about the fact that teaching pirated
software puts a price on freedom, and that you do not support the
principles of libre, if you promote it as secondary to the principles
of gratis...perhaps for another post...

adam


-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net

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