With Software, It Pays To Be Legal

[snoop1130]

With Software, It Pays To Be Legal

By Bernard Collin

 

 

This month, Bernard Collin, discusses a topic that he feels very strongly about: the dangers of illegal software and offers advice about how companies can protect themselves from the perils of piracy.

 

 

It’s a fact of life throughout Southeast Asia and particularly in Thailand, piracy is rampant. You can’t walk down the street without running into trays of pirated DVDs and CDs or racks of t-shirts that aren’t quite official. If you’re a business owner and illegal software is in your workplace, then you should be concerned, because you’re setting yourself up for a potential liability and huge financial disaster.

 

And if you are a private person with no connection with a business, you should be also concerned. If you have an illegal license on your laptop or home computer, there is a great chance that you are already infected with some kind of malware or trojans, which potentially can turn your PC into a member of a BotNet for criminal purpose or simply spamming. How would you feel getting the MiB (Men in Brown) knocking on your door with a copy of the computer crime act, asking if you are aware that your computer was traced back as being part of an illegal ring of scammers.

 

People often ask me, “If my company is using illegal software, how can I get caught?” The answer is simple: Every day, local companies are raided by law enforcement officials whose sole intent is to find pirated software. Those caught are forced to buy original versions for every single computer in their office and are also hit with a heavy penalty. This amount could exceed a few million baht.

 

You have to ask yourself “If I received a fine like that, could I even afford to stay in business?” If the answer is no, then why even take the risk?

 

These raids happen because the Business Software Alliance (BSA) gives huge rewards (250,000B in cash) to people who report companies using illegal software. Every business owner has a disgruntled former employee or some rival who are candidates to contact the BSA, turn them in and collect the reward. That’s the reason why any company is exposed, no matter its size or activity. Besides the risk of raids and fines, which could dramatically impact the company finance and reputation, there are other reasons to avoid illegal software in the workplace.

 

One is the fact that these programmes are more likely to fail or malfunction, which in turn can make a mess of your computers and render the valuable information they contain useless. The company then has to personally deal with these problems because their local pirated software dealer isn’t offering any warranties or technical support for the stuff they sell. Illegal software is also one of the main sources for computer viruses that can lead to all sorts of other problems for a company. A common mistake made by careless IT Managers, is when they install an illegal copy of Adobe Professional, under the assumption that they will remain legal because they only use it to read PDFs. I have seen this specific error responsible for very high fine from the BSA.

 

 

If one of your employees installs unauthorised computer programmes on company hardware or illegally downloads software from the internet, you may be held liable – even if you or company management didn’t know this sort of activity was going on. When that happens, it’s a sad situation but it’s one more reason why business owners should police their computers and have regular audits performed if they have any concerns.

 

Companies can help themselves by being proactive in this area, training employees and educating them about the dangers of piracy is one way to get started. Make them take personal responsibility for the contents of their workstations and explain to them that if they don’t, the threat to your business could cost them their jobs as well.

 

It can be assumed that most people use pirated software because the original versions are so expensive and I understand that legitimate software is not cheap. For example, a legal version of Microsoft Office costs around 12,000B. That price is high for the US or European markets, let alone Asia. If someone has to pay that much for these programmes, it’s hard to blame them for wanting to pay just a few hundred baht for a copy. But there are different ways for someone to get legal even if they can’t really afford the version from

Microsoft.

 

For PC users, the alternative to Microsoft office is Open Office, an open source programme available for free. It has all features available in Office, with the main difference being the interface and the fact that people need to learn to use it differently. The conversion from Microsoft Office to Open Office works quite well. If you work on a Mac. Apple has a bunch of programmes that are the same if not better than the ones contained in Office, but with significant savings as they are included with each Mac.

 

That’s just one example. There is also available freeware that runs just like the programmes everyone has grown accustomed to using. Adobe even launched a free online version of Photoshop recently. People just have to know how to get these things. Even an OS like Windows 10 can be replaced by the ever growing in popularity UBUNTU, a linux environment that is very easy to install and use, especially if you are unhappy with the need to constantly upgrade your hardware to keep up with the ferocious appetite in Memory and CPU cycles of Microsoft Software.

 

Individuals get addicted to their computer programmes and employees will resist change from Microsoft Word to a freeware version that basically works the same. Companies have to get their staff on board with this line of thinking, because there’s so much at stake for their business. It’s really about changing an entire business philosophy. And there are other reasons for people to be concerned about piracy and its effects on society. On the surface, the average person sitting in a coffee shop and using an illegal programme on their laptop doesn’t really care about the business down the street that’s getting raided and fined for pirated software. But they should, because this situation affects life as a whole in ways that people don’t even see.

 

A low piracy rate is a sign of a healthy IT industry, which translates to more jobs, more money for economic growth and more taxes the government can collect to help improve other aspects of life throughout the country. Less piracy will directly affect the local economy in a positive way.

 

As a generally optimistic person, I feel that this crisis will eventually get resolved. Companies like Microsoft have created a monster and the fact that their products are heavily pirated should tell them that their pricing is excessive. It would help if this software wasn’t so expensive to begin with, so for me the first step would be to get the costs down to a level that the average person (and average small business) can afford. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later, and we are getting there, Microsoft now has Office version for home and small businesses.

 

The introduction of quality freeware will ultimately force the software giants to rethink their price policy, for the benefit of all. Secondly, it’s about education. People have to learn about the dangers of piracy and then help spread the message. The Thai government has recently got involved with this process of awareness building, so I’m encouraged by that. In the past three years or so, China has cut its piracy rate by about ten percent, so these things are not impossible to achieve.

 

All you need to do is be proactive and contact a trusted partner who can help you on the path to a clean legal environment. If the task is daunting and too big to consider at first, you can always get help to negotiate a moratorium with the BSA (a time for you to get legal with financial planning ability). The only way is to engage the process before getting raided, because after that, it’s already too late.

 

 

I view this topic as a highly personal one because my previous company suffered from having software that was pirated. That hurt me in more ways than one. Software developers like myself spend a lot of time and effort creating these programmes. In theory, a portion of our profits are supposed to be used for research and development so that we can improve our products in the future. But when people purchase pirated software, the money goes directly to pirates and the company that developed it never gets a single satang.

 

And on a purely ethical level, avoiding illegal software is just the right thing to do, because if you don’t then you’re stealing – plain and simple. I highly doubt that most business owners would think of shoplifting a candy bar from the grocery store or snatching some woman’s purse, so why would they even consider engaging in the form of robbery known as software piracy?

 

Companies must understand that they need to act on this before it’s too late by finding a trusted partner to plan a migration to a clean, legal environment. If you’re using illegal software, this will be your first step towards a good nights sleep.

 

Source: http://expatlifeinthailand.com/education/software-pays-legal/

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life In Thailand 2017-5-30

[RichCor]

This article could have done with some judicious editing, and some examples of companies recently raided and forced to comply.

 

And if the raids are so financially successful, why isn't the whole of Thailand yet compliant?

 

Sign me skeptical.

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, RichCor said:

And if the raids are so financially successful, why isn't the whole of Thailand yet compliant?

 

Many businesses, few raids. Also I dont think that many Thais have any great moral problems with stealing software.

[dave_boo]

If one is too skint to pay for a legal Windows install (and the antivirus and antimalware), going F/OSS route is an extremely reasonable alternative. As most everything is done in a web browser these days and the kernel has more and more drivers buit right in while the distributions are offering everything one could need with a click or two in their repository or software centre it just makes sense.

 

I've got the family on it (except the wife as she needs iTunes for her phone) and I'm never getting complaints. Boss had me install it on a couple of netbooks and both him and his wife just use them.  Every couple of years I upgrade them to the latest release and the systems automatically download and install updates monthly.

[oldcarguy]

13 minutes ago, dave_boo said:

 going F/OSS route is an extremely reasonable alternative. .

 

Ummmmm......what is this ?

 

and is it a simple download or more propeller head than most of us understand ?

[dave_boo]

2 hours ago, oldcarguy said:

 

Ummmmm......what is this ?

 

and is it a simple download or more propeller head than most of us understand ?

F/OSS stands for Free/Open Source Software. It covers a wide range of software such as BSD, OpenSolaris, Linux, GNU Hurd, etc. They all have slightly different definitions of what they mean by saying free or open, but basically it is an ideology of the people using the software have the right to know how it works (but don't insist that people become experts to use-Android is used by 100's of millions and most of them don't even know it's based on Linux kernel). I won't get bogged down with which idea is best but Linux supports the most hardware. The community is also the largest so questions are answered quickly.

 

Having said all of that I would recommend looking at Lubuntu. Has low system requirements and it's based on the Ubuntu system (which is itself based on Debian; one of the oldest and most respected Linux versions out there). Lubuntu is a free download and can be written to a thumb drive and boot up without touching anything on your hard drive. You can try Lubuntu out for as long as you like and when you're done trying it out you can reboot your computer with no harm done or you can install it...while you continue to use it. Lubuntu has a very familiar classic Windows feel to it and I believe that it comes with most all codecs installed so you can enjoy all of your media off the bat.

 

http://lubuntu.net

 

[RichCor]

 

2 hours ago, oldcarguy said:

2 hours ago, dave_boo said:

going F/OSS route is an extremely reasonable alternative.

Ummmmm......what is this ?

and is it a simple download or more propeller head than most of us understand ?

 

Acronym for Free or Open Source Software.

 

It's a little propeller head as you need to know what alternative OS will run on what hardware.

But as Microsoft Windows comes increasingly under remote attack and runs slower and slower with each release, and more and more users find themselves just interacting with the web, running a computer with an alternative OS becomes an easy choice.

 

I love my android phone, for instance. Very handy device.

Also have an android box for watching movies and viewing YouTube.

I have no problem staying away from Microsoft's solutions for those devices.

[JaseTheBass]

MS Office at 12,000baht? I only pay about 2,000baht.

Sent from my Cray II supercomputer

[Oxx]

4 hours ago, RichCor said:

It's a little propeller head as you need to know what alternative OS will run on what hardware.

 

It's not that hard.

 

Just create a bootable USB for the version of Linux you want to install.  Boot from it.  See what works (which will probably be everything for most PCs).  If OK, install.  Otherwise try a different version.

 

The Linux version's site will have full instructions on how to do this.

[Richard-BKK]

Our computers run Linux for years and nobody in the office have anything to complain, it works flawless, it works fast and doesn’t need the same demanding hardware to do the same thing.

 

But some of the people at the Thai BSA are not cut from the smartest wood in the forest. For instance we have a computer that is our server. It run Ubuntu server, and for any computer which connects to it it will react as a Microsoft server. Also the case has a sticker from the manufacturer that says MS Windows Ready (plus MS Windows logo), I’m sure a few people know the sticker I mean… So two persons from the Thai BSA with a army of 4 police came to our office a few years back and demanded to see all software licenses.

 

We only have a few MS Windows computers, and all software is legal, so that was no problem. Until one of the BSA nerds checked one of the MS Windows computers and detected the Network Server… it acts as a Microsoft server, and checking the case they demanded to see the Microsoft server license for that computer (server)… Until our IT manager showed them it was a Linux server… they still tried to find some illegal software, probably because they lost face or so… One girl in the office joked that they should also check the smartphones what made them a bit more irritated…

[Suradit69]

On 5/30/2017 at 10:47 PM, KittenKong said:

Many businesses, few raids. Also I dont think that many Thais have any great moral problems with stealing software.

Yes, the only people who buy pirated software or download videos from Pirate Bay or Kickass or who buy dubious tee shirts in markets are Thai.

 

Amazing Thai Visa. Farang = living saint, Thai = lack of moral compass.

 

 

[Minnehaha]

On 5/30/2017 at 6:37 PM, RichCor said:

This article could have done with some judicious editing, and some examples of companies recently raided and forced to comply.

 

And if the raids are so financially successful, why isn't the whole of Thailand yet compliant?

 

Sign me skeptical.

Yes.

The huge number of pirate software users is really so large it is ridiculous to believe this. I would jot down 10 companies including govt agencies and make very easy few million baht

[KittenKong]

15 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

Yes, the only people who buy pirated software or download videos from Pirate Bay or Kickass or who buy dubious tee shirts in markets are Thai.

 

Amazing Thai Visa. Farang = living saint, Thai = lack of moral compass.

 

I didnt say that Thais are the only thieves in Thailand. However as Thais largely outnumber all other nationalities combined here I do think it reasonable to suppose that they form the bulk of the clientele of places that sell pirated software. A simple glance at such shops and the people in them would appear to confirm this.

 

Personally I'm no saint but I am constantly amazed by the almost complete lack of morals displayed by many people here of all skin colours.

[kingstonkid]

I worked in a government school and guess what all the software including windows was pirated.  The students looked after the system need I say more.

[howard ashoul]

Dunno about laws in Thailand.

 

But in my country is legal to use pirated software for private purposes. It's also legal to download and own pirated movies.

 

Only uploading/sharing them is illegal.

[zyphodb]

So who's going to grass up the BIB & probably the RTA for 250000 Bht a pop then?

 

How could that possibly go wrong.......   

[robblok]

1 hour ago, Suradit69 said:

Yes, the only people who buy pirated software or download videos from Pirate Bay or Kickass or who buy dubious tee shirts in markets are Thai.

 

Amazing Thai Visa. Farang = living saint, Thai = lack of moral compass.

 

 

I got almost all my software legal.. office windows ect.. but I download movies.. I know I am a bad guy and I am a foreigner. 

[RichCor]

Thought the following graph, posted in ThaiVisa Thailand News thread, was revealing...

 

A year after Bill Gates' holiday snaps those cables are still hanging!
ThaiVisa NEWS  |  Started by webfact, 6 hours ago

 

Tilacme: "What BG was originally saying is that people were stealing electricity and the authorities need to stop it, which of course was a metaphor for people using pirated copies of Windows here."

 

marquis22: "Hate to see the rate of electricity stealing in Georgia then? :-) "

 

[tryasimight]

Who is Bernard Collins?

[RichCor]

33 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Who is Bernard Collins?

Oooh, incorrect.

The answer we were looking for is, "Who is Bernard Collin", of the expatlifeinthailand.com website.

 

But as a consolation prize you're eligible to take home the electronic edition of the ThaiVisa expat news forum home game, so you can continue to play along.

 

 

I can't get over the fact that the story is about copied IP, and it was copied and placed on ThaiVisa. 

[bazza73]

I can't believe anyone would use pirated Windows when Linux is free. Or even pay for Windows.

All the problems I had with the various versions of Windows ( Vista was a stinker ) disappeared 5 years ago when I went to Linux. No crashes, freezes, hogging the computer while yet another band-aid was applied.

It would be interesting to see what happens if one nation has the gumption to convert all its government and education OS to Linux, and tells Microsoft to piss off. Windows has always been a triumph of marketing over product quality.

Edited June 3, 2017 by bazza73
Addition

[lvr181]

14 hours ago, RichCor said:

Thought the following graph, posted in ThaiVisa Thailand News thread, was revealing...

 

A year after Bill Gates' holiday snaps those cables are still hanging!
ThaiVisa NEWS  |  Started by webfact, 6 hours ago

 

Tilacme: "What BG was originally saying is that people were stealing electricity and the authorities need to stop it, which of course was a metaphor for people using pirated copies of Windows here."

 

marquis22: "Hate to see the rate of electricity stealing in Georgia then? :-) "

 

And the editor and date of the graph creation was? 

Edited June 3, 2017 by lvr181

[RichCor]

8 hours ago, lvr181 said:

And the editor and date of the graph creation was? 

 

Hey, don't get your facts anywhere near my pirated, questionably sourced, fake statistics.

 

A google search shows the graph appears related to a 2013 post from here:

 

Aaugh rather than Arragh: Windows Piracy
digitopoly.org  |  By JOSHUA GANS  |  DEC 23, 2013 · IN PIRACY

[Oxx]

10 hours ago, bazza73 said:

Windows has always been a triumph of marketing over product quality.

 

No.  Windows was a triumph of cost and usability for a few years.

 

When Windows first came it the only previous decent windowing system was Xerox Star (and its Japanese version J-Star).  J-Star (which I worked with) was incredibly expensive, and you had to buy the hardware with the O/S.

 

Windows (from 3.x) was affordable, worked reasonably well, and wasn't tied to specific hardware.

 

When Windows 3.0 was release in 1990 Linux hadn't even started.  (Linux started the following year.  The first Red Hat Linux was 1994 and it was an absolute pain to install and get up running.)

 

Really it's only been in the last 10 years that there has been any viable alternative to Microsoft WIndows for the desktop.

 

I am no fan of Windows, and haven't used it for 15+ years.  However, I have the grace to recognise that when it was initially launched it was a major step forward for the desktop with absolutely no viable competition.

[bazza73]

1 minute ago, Oxx said:

 

No.  Windows was a triumph of cost and usability for a few years.

 

When Windows first came it the only previous decent windowing system was Xerox Star (and its Japanese version J-Star).  J-Star (which I worked with) was incredibly expensive, and you had to buy the hardware with the O/S.

 

Windows (from 3.x) was affordable, worked reasonably well, and wasn't tied to specific hardware.

 

When Windows 3.0 was release in 1990 Linux hadn't even started.  (Linux started the following year.  The first Red Hat Linux was 1994 and it was an absolute pain to install and get up running.)

 

Really it's only been in the last 10 years that there has been any viable alternative to Microsoft WIndows for the desktop.

 

I am no fan of Windows, and haven't used it for 15+ years.  However, I have the grace to recognise that when it was initially launched it was a major step forward for the desktop with absolutely no viable competition.

I stand corrected. Delete always. I've been using Windows up to version 7. XP and 7 were the more competent versions, and that's damning with faint praise. Vista by rights should have sunk Microsoft, but I guess they had enough cash backup to survive that abortion.

Linux does have one feature I have never found with Microsoft, although that may be due to my own lack of skills. Linux politely advises me of updates, and I can install them at a time of my own choosing. Microsoft just shoulders me aside while it updates and applies patches at will. I prefer manners from an operating system.

[Oxx]

22 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

Vista by rights should have sunk Microsoft, but I guess they had enough cash backup to survive that abortion.

 

I believe Windows Vista sold 20 million copies in the first month after launch, compared with 17 million copies over the first two months for WIndows XP.  Hardly a commercial flop.  Didn't every use it, so can't comment if it's a steaming pile of doggy doo-doo.

 

(Totally off topic, but I was recently in TOPS supermarket, and there was a checkout terminal which wasn't used displaying a screen reading "Microsoft POS".  Let's just say my first interpretation of "POS" wasn't "Point of Sale".)

[bazza73]

18 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

 

 

19 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

I believe Windows Vista sold 20 million copies in the first month after launch, compared with 17 million copies over the first two months for WIndows XP.  Hardly a commercial flop.  Didn't every use it, so can't comment if it's a steaming pile of doggy doo-doo.

 

(Totally off topic, but I was recently in TOPS supermarket, and there was a checkout terminal which wasn't used displaying a screen reading "Microsoft POS".  Let's just say my first interpretation of "POS" wasn't "Point of Sale".)

I was persuaded to upgrade to Vista by the person who sold me a new laptop. From day one, it froze, acquired viruses, all the dropdown menus had changed. I actually went back to XP until Windows 7 arrived. I understand the real estate businesses in my state did the same because Vista was causing so many problems. Yes, it was a steaming pile.........

[lvr181]

10 hours ago, bazza73 said:

 

I was persuaded to upgrade to Vista by the person who sold me a new laptop. From day one, it froze, acquired viruses, all the dropdown menus had changed. I actually went back to XP until Windows 7 arrived. I understand the real estate businesses in my state did the same because Vista was causing so many problems. Yes, it was a steaming pile.........

Vista was that good?   

I was able to stay away from Vista (and Win 8 and 8.1). Went straight to Win XP. But then I am not an early adopter of technology. Happy to let others sort out the major problems before I make any change. Just recently went to Win 10 Home (clean install) from Win 7 and apart from the "compulsory" updates am quite content using it.

[dave_boo]

On 2017-6-3 at 2:08 PM, Oxx said:

 

No.  Windows was a triumph of cost and usability for a few years.

 

When Windows first came it the only previous decent windowing system was Xerox Star (and its Japanese version J-Star).  J-Star (which I worked with) was incredibly expensive, and you had to buy the hardware with the O/S.

 

Windows (from 3.x) was affordable, worked reasonably well, and wasn't tied to specific hardware.

 

When Windows 3.0 was release in 1990 Linux hadn't even started.  (Linux started the following year.  The first Red Hat Linux was 1994 and it was an absolute pain to install and get up running.)

 

Really it's only been in the last 10 years that there has been any viable alternative to Microsoft WIndows for the desktop.

 

I am no fan of Windows, and haven't used it for 15+ years.  However, I have the grace to recognise that when it was initially launched it was a major step forward for the desktop with absolutely no viable competition.

Forgot Amiga OS did you? Intuition came out a half a year before Windows and was running on a preemptive kernel. 

 

MacOS was released almost a full 2 years before Windows. And it was based on Lisa which came out almost 3 years before Windows.

 

I will give you that Windows wasn't tied to specific hardware but it was also the least stable. 

[Richard-BKK]

Talking about operating systems with a graphical user interface, I think we all should pay respect to Xerox Star, which had as full name Xerox 8010 Information System and was the first commercial system that combined various technologies that have since become standard, like bitmapped display, graphical user interface, icons, folders and more… It was also the first operating system that supported Ethernet networking (also a Xerox invention) and could also be configured as file server or print server.

 

If you look at the screen of a Xerox Star you maybe confused that you're looking at a early Apply Mac.... but Steve Job just copied the whole thing... Even taking credit for creating the first computer mouse, what is absolutly not true...

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Richard-BKK