A series of recent events have seen me take on a radically new view on pirated software; be it warez, keygens, cracks, and what not. I had always thought, somewhat naively, that software pirates’ business model is advertising. While they certainly do generate a lot of revenues from advertising, pirates aren’t exactly good honest people and will screw you anyway they can. All pirated software will almost certainly contain malware; potentially turning your machine into one of the many zombies on the Internet, doing whatever the botmaster commands. The irony is that while you’re trying to screw the software manufacturers, you’ve been screwed yourself.

Microsoft is supposedly playing its part in combating software piracy with the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program but I can’t help thinking that they are simply trying to increase their sales. It is now extremely difficult, if not impossible, for users to get the latest Windows update without WGA installed. The fact of the matter is that most users affected by the problem have been screwed both ways; by the PC vendors who sold them the pirated Windows, and Microsoft who keeps pushing WGA.

Ultimately, the biggest obstacle to eliminating software piracy is cost. Having all software fully licensed simply costs too much for most users. While users may not think about it, the costs of software could easily exceed the cost of their hardware.

Nowadays, there are a lot of good, high quality, free software. If you can’t afford the licensed products, they are usually free alternatives that will do an adequate job. In some cases, the free software is better than the licensed products. A growing number of software manufacturers are releasing free community or personal editions of their products, which is nice. It is also great to see the open-source community putting in all the time and effort in promoting free software. Kudos to those involved.