The Business Software Alliance — the Ladies Against Women of the IT set — found out that the average Azerbaijani has over $250 worth of pirated software on his or her computer. Second in the list is Iceland with about $225 and America and China eat it big time because we steal $7.2 billion and $5.4 billion from Bill Gates’ mewling mouth every time we hit the Pirate Bay. Cry us a river, BSA.

With the rise of open source software and inexpensive laptops and PCs, the standard software modus operandi is outdated. There is good software out there, but it is increasingly being pushed out by free and open source alternatives. And the people who need to buy software will buy software, even at amazingly high prices. Just ask Bill and Steve how much piracy is hurting them. It’s an “issue” but it’s definitely not eating into the bottom line. I’d say Google Calendar is eating more of Microsoft’s lunch than Qobustan Rayonu’s P4 laptop with a cracked version of Office 2003 on it.

It’s another example of a shill group blaming the consumer for it’s clients own failure to adapt. Sound familiar?

Those who can pay, pay. Those who can’t — usually high school and college kids — don’t. When you hit the corporate league, you buy the licenses and everyone is happy. Otherwise, you pirate like a bastard.

Free loaders [Economist]