The LA Times yesterday published the following article: How Piracy Opens Doors for Windows. The article explains why some software publishers complain so much about piracy, but do very little to prevent it. Basically, it makes the same argument that I made in a paper published last year in the UTLJ. What I especially liked (in addition to being quoted...) is a remark made by Bill Gates, which in an unguarded moment confrimed my point. Here's what Gates said in 1998 to an audience in the University of Washington:
Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though... And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.
I wish I had this qoute for my paper. Thanks Bill.