On Fri, 13 Sep 2002 10:24:17 +0530, Raghavendra Bhat wrote:
Mahesh posts :
saying that software piracy is harming the free software movement more than it is harming the Giants themselves
Illegally copied software cannot harm the Free Software movement because no revenue stream is hit.
I think you've missed the point. So-called piracy of proprietary software *definitely* harms Free Software because it propagates product lock-in. And there is no denying the fact that people and businesses locked-in to proprietary software (paid for or not) are the ones most unlikely to switch to free software.
However, Mahesh's assumption that if such a locked-in entity is "raided" for piracy, s/he/they will switch to free software is not convincing because the hidden costs of such a switch may be too high; re-training, migration of proprietary format data, even porting of custom applications, these may all serve as huge disincentives to switching. Therefore, if "raided", it might be less costly for such an entity to go out and purchase a proprietary software license than switch to free software.
One more reason to keep "cost" out of the free software advocacy picture.