Pirated software: Your gain and loss

Pirated software: Your gain and loss

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): You've just returned from a trip to your
favorite CD-ROM shop in Glodok, downtown. The store has the
latest computer programs and their collection is simply the most
complete. You're very excited, and want to immediately start
exploring and using the particular program your friend has been
telling you about. It's the best upgrade he had ever seen, he
said, a must-have. So you waste no time.

You switch on your PC's stabilizer and warm the machine up.
Loading Windows 95, you insert the CD-ROM you've just bought into
the drive. Then you click on the Start button. You click on
Settings and then on Control Panel.

Once the Control Panel is up, you click on Remove/Install
Programs. A dialog box pops up. You click again on Install and
then Next. In the dialog box that appears, you browse the
subdirectories in the CD-ROM until you find the programs you want
to try out. You look for the SETUP.EXE file. When you've located
it, you click, click and click again until the setup utility
starts copying the files needed for installing the entire
software program.

You've followed the right procedure for installing a new
software program. If you were to buy all the software programs
contained in the CD-ROM individually, you'd have to spend a
fortune. The CD-ROMs, bearing the name "Collection" or "Shop" or
"Installer", may contain the latest version of industry favorites
such as AutoCad, Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXpress. Each of these
software programs would have set you back US$400 to $3000, if you
had decided to buy the original. Now, for just Rp 35,000 or Rp
40,000, you can have them all on one CD.

And there are a lot of other programs, utilities, screen
savers and encyclopedias, not to mention a slew of games. At such
a low price, it's a bargain. You're definitely a winner.

Well, maybe not quite. Perhaps not all of the programs in your
new CD can be installed properly. Some CD-ROM stores in Glodok
remind you that they do not guarantee every single program on the
list that you read at the back of the jewel case will work. Even
if the majority don't work, they say, you won't get a
replacement.

In most cases, the program works. But, sometimes, just when
you fire it up wondering why you were not asked to type in the
serial number, you see the message on the screen: Please enter
product serial number. If you don't have the serial number or the
CD-Key (a combination of alphanumeric characters) needed to
properly complete the installation procedure, bad luck. Most of
the time you can find the necessary key in a file named
SERIALNO.TXT found in the same directory where the SETUP.EXE is
located. Sometimes you can even phone the store where you bought
the CD-ROM, because usually they keep a list of the serial
numbers.

Sometimes, you get a bad CD. The worst thing that can happen
is that your CD-ROM drive refuses to read it, but the store's CD-
ROM drive read it without a hiccup. Now you have the store owner
persuading you to buy a new CD-ROM drive to make sure you can
benefit from the pirated programs.

As an owner of pirated software, you are on your own. You have
no manual and no access to technical support. But, in most cases,
this is not really an issue here in Indonesia. You may not get a
satisfactory level of support even when you buy the original.

Virus

But, beware. The CD-ROM may contain a virus. It is possible
the hard disk used to create the master CD was already plagued
with a virus. Because it is a ROM -- Read Only Memory -- there is
no way you can clean up the virus. Once you run it and it manages
to beat your antivirus, you end up having an infected hard disk.
And it's not a nice feeling knowing that you have a virus on your
hard disk.

The sad thing about software piracy is that even highly
profitable businesses and legal offices use pirated software.
They actually could afford to buy the original, but the lure is
so strong. For such a small amount of money they can use the
latest and best tools of their trade. Why spend money on the
original? But, think again.

If businesses use illegal software, they may get away with it.
The problem is, the general public certainly ends up being the
loser. As my friend Martin Harris from AutoDesk aptly wrote in
his recent E-mail to me: "Unfortunately in Indonesia we are
facing the problem of high software piracy, which keeps our
returns rather moderate. The industry is very short-sighted as
their illegal usage of software is a great barrier to local
software development and also keeps companies like ours from
being able to donate more seats to education and investment into
the development of human resources and technology centers."

So, isn't it time people started paying for the tools they use
to make money?