Are All Music Software Companies Hurt by Software Piracy?

 

Many companies that create music software that only runs with their proprietary hardware interfaces believe that they are not affected by software piracy. Also, many music software companies that have strong copy protection schemes wrongly believe that they are not hurt by software piracy. At this point, you are probably puzzled and wondering what to make of this article.

		If a music software company does not see its products on pirate sites, the company may assume that it is immune to software piracy and that it does not need to take any actions to reduce piracy. Are music software companies with proprietary hardware devices or impenetrable copy protection schemes negatively affected by music software piracy? The answer is yes!
Don't turn a blind eye. You can't ignore this problem...

How is this possible if there are no cracked versions of their products out there?

To answer this question, let’s use an example.

John Dow is looking for a high-end DAW program (or plug-in or virtual instrument for that matter) to use in his brand new studio. For argument's sake, let’s say that he is interested in purchasing one of the products by one of the above mentioned companies who believe that software piracy does not affect them in any way, shape, or form. He does his research and finds out that it costs him so many dollars to buy his desired program. Then he comes across a web site that has other high-end and comparable software products which he could download for free. It may not be his desired product, but it will do what he needs it to do, completely free of charge.

You get the picture. Pirated versions of a particular music software product not only affect the company that makes that product but also those companies that make competing products, even if these competing products can not be pirated. Therefore, we can conclude that music software piracy hurts the entire music software industry and not just the companies that have their products cracked and put on pirate web sites to be downloaded for free.

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