Stop Piracy

One of the evils plaguing the software industry is piracy. It is not right to steal software or copyrighted work. The sad reality is that nearly everyone is involved in some form of piracy or the other. From fake unlicensed Windows Operating systems to books to software suites, people steal/crack/pirate software.

One of the motivations for going to Linux was because I was limited by Windows. Nearly all software produced for Windows are commercial, moreover the hefty price tags effectively put them out of the reach of many Nigerians. How many Nigerians can afford to pay up to 30,000 naira for a software package?

I made up my mind never to use pirated software fora couple of reasons; my faith doesn’t allow it because it’s cheating and oppression, my conscience troubles me because developers invest so much time, effort and money into creating useful software. And as much as I believe in open source and contributing towards helping people, I feel people have a right to sell their software too.

Way out? Alternatives exist for major software and also there are extensive libraries of books which are free and have no copyrights – they are copyleft ;). The benefits of using authentic software clearly outweigh those gained by using pirated/cracked software. Admittedly, some like the Adobe Creative Suite might have no equal but you CAN still create products of equal value using other software.

Life is all about values, we have to define our values and stand for them. If  I choose to do what is right and will stick to it insha Allah (God willing). Its up to you to choose what you want to do.

Lets unite against piracy, lets move against cheating.