[Fsf-friends] IT Vision

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

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.

-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala