The Underscore Archives

									One aspect of all this that cropped up in my mind recently is how much do
these larger (not talking about shareware style, smaller budget software)
software companies actually care about piracy in the context of open source
software. If I were Adobe, for example, and were able to put in place a
mechanism to stop instantly all copyright infringement of Photoshop, what
would be the consequences?

As far as I can see it:

a) There would be millions of users worldwide who urgently needed/wanted an
image manipulation program but couldn't afford the cost of Photoshop.
b) GIMP or something else would probably improve almost over night, probably
to the point where it was as good if not better.
c) Paid up subscribers of Photoshop would have a real choice in terms of
what they use, and potentially many would hence not renew their licenses.
d) Adobe revenue drops, NOT vice-versa.

Currently there are millions of students/struggling developers happily using
some Middle Eastern version of Photoshop CS2 who can slip straight in to a
production house work flow if and when the opportunities arise as they have
the skills learnt on 'pirated' software.

I'd want to be very careful about not rocking this boat if I was developing
an anti-piracy strategy.

Alan

--
Alan Parry
alan at parry.me.uk