Piracy
often has a negative connotation attached to it. People automatically think of
criminals that steal that steal content in order to make people’s lives worse.
Companies can, however, see an increase of revenue from even the most common
forms of online pirating.
One of the more
common goals for entertainment businesses is to convert the people who pirate
their content into paying customers. By finding out which regions of the world
pirate certain type of content, it helps the business single out which
consumers have been giving more attention to your product. Italy, Russia and
India are known for their high volume pirating of enterprise software. A huge
corporation like Microsoft would target users of Windows XP Professional by
notifying them the benefits of buying the full copy of their software, while
also was offering them a discount through certain ads. This incentivizes these large consumer bases
because they have already shown high interest in these products.
Another aspect to
keep in mind is protecting your digital assets from theft. When launching your
products out on the Internet, it is imperative to make sure they are protected
through license keys or through other forms of digital rights management (DRM) services.
Key communications can be installed to connect to a central server. It would
then be able to notify the business when someone is using the software without
having paid for it. This procedure helps protect the software that you’re using
to try to sell, to potential new customers.
Sources
Vodnik, Craig. "How to Make Software Piracy
a Revenue Source." Yahoo Small Business Advisor. Business 2
Community, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/software-piracy-revenue-source-094550278.html
It is so true that piracy can help companies to find out which group of people have high interest in their products! It will help companies to make the most effective decions! But how can companies find out which area has high piracy rate? Will that be expensive and time-consuming?
ReplyDeleteOne more thing, it looks like all of those money except for the first one are $1 in that picture, lol :p
Great blog!
Hey Regina, I'd imagine companies find out which parts of the world use pirating by looking at the web traffic of major pirating sites. A lot of pirating site traffic seems to come from several countries from Europe and eastern Asia. I don't think it would be that expensive. Companies use data analytic to find out where their products are selling the most. I'd assume some similar process is used to find out who is pirating a company's products.
DeleteOh wow, I didn't notice that those dollar bills were singles. Great catch! :)
I'm not very educated when it comes to piracy. I know what it is and that I don't need to take part in it. That is all. This article helps me look more in depth on the topic of piracy. I have never known piracy to have positive effects on a business so that was neat to read. I do know that there are many people who purchase some type of software, such as Microsoft Office, then give it to their friends and share the license to the software. This is illegal but is done by many people. One way Microsoft and other companies have tried to prevent this is limiting the amount of downloads available on the disk. Once the individual has downloaded the max amount of downloads then the disc is erased. Great article!
ReplyDeletePaige I thought I knew about Piracy but after doing this project I realized I truly didn't know as much as I thought I did. I was shocked too when I found out piracy could have positive effects on a business but it still is illegal. I have heard there is a way to get around the maximum downloads for Microsoft and if it actually works which I'm not sure if it does, people can try and put these kinds of things into place but sadly someone will probably come around and figure out a way around it. Piracy is just a really hard thing to control but they seem to have gotten music piracy a little more under control so I think there is hope! One way they are moving in the right direction is my TV provider offers free on demand for some TV shows which is really nice because I was able to get caught up on a whole TV series for free so I think more things like this will help with the growing TV/movie piracy problem which seems to be more popular right now.
DeleteI found it interesting that companies who target areas where pirating occurs invest in making those who do the pirating as customers by offering software with discounts and benefits in order to draw them into coming on board with the company.
ReplyDeleteI also did not know that there are systems that can monitor and catch when someone is using something they did not pay for. With how technology is in today's world, I should not be surprised that key communications are installed to monitor sites. Enlightening blog!
Yeah it's an interesting strategy to draw in the people who pirated but I mean they are giving them pretty good incentives with discounts, I just hope they offer these deals to their actual customers as well or else it would be as if they are punishing those who pay for their products and trying to almost reward those who stole in a way. I agree with you that it's not surprising what the internet is capable of these days.
DeleteThe strategy to find out the high-pirating-rate region and do special promotion is a good strategy. But I think it really depends om the consuming behavior, culture and regulation in each individual market. Consumers in some countries just don't think they should pay for services if they can enjoy them for free, no matter what discount the company provide.
ReplyDeleteJian I definitely agree that sometimes even with the incentive of a discount it won't make any difference for some as they will continue to illegally download since it's free however I do think it will help sway some into buying the product and if it can help stop a few people from illegally downloading I'd consider it a success.
ReplyDelete