Why is this such a hot topic around here? It has nothing to do with making music. This belongs on some sort of morality web page or something.
With that said, I do feel that software upgrades are expensive and seem to come pretty quickly. My take on this is that once you buy an expensive piece of software, the upgrades should come to you at NO CHARGE afterwards. Forever. And ever. As long as you own a legitimate piece of software and you have registered it and all of that. People feel like - "why should I pay $500 for a program, and then in a year I have to pay another $299 or else have my music sound dated because I am using old software?" And that is a legitimate issue. Especially when these programs are needed to "level the playing field" with the pros. It used to be that once you had a decent amp, a halfway decent guitar, and a four track tape rig, you could do well enough and sound almost as good as anyone, if you knew what you were doing. And that was the extent of the investment - no upgrades! Not so today. Things change so fast that it is costly to stay even six months -behind- the times. I think that the costly and frequent upgrades can tip the scales towards piracy. Imagine someone who is considering the choice between purchasing and registering a program for $500, or pirating a free copy. $500 is a lot of money to many people - and then they start to think about the fact that the $500 is far from being a final expenditure and is merely the beginning of a long and costly relationship with the software developer if they want to stay current - so they say "f it" and just burn the copy. If they felt like they were getting something a little more permanent, perhaps they would be willing to purchase it. Also, how many times has someone sprung for the legitimate product, and then been asked to PAY EVEN MORE for tech support? Or find that while the $500 might include support, but the support they get (if they can get through) is not very good and perhaps the person was even rude to them. So I am by no means excusing piracy, but I am pointing out that the software industry has done things that lessen the perceived value of their products and led to people that would normally not steal pirating software. For example, when someone buys a new car or other expensive product, they get a warranty that is generally honored without much of a hassle. Much of the software industry feels that they have free reign to treat their customers like sh!t.
While not eliminating it, I think that free, or at least lower cost, upgrades to legitimate software would lead to a decrease in piracy. Considering that the average home based midi user probably uses anywhere from 2-5 different expensive programs, the initial cost alone is very high. But it hurts when you make an initial investment of say, $1,500 and you just know that you'll have to keep laying out chunks of cash over the months and years to stay updated.
My opinion here is an aside - it's not specificallly about piracy. I am not excusing anything, only pointing out what might lead to piracy in the first place. One other aspect to consider is that many people in our generation were "brought up" on free software; just like free music downloads. But look at what happened with the music downloads - now that there are companies who have legitimized them, made them affordable, and also added value (it's worth something these days when you can count on a fast download speed and not receiving viruses instead of music - the glory days of the old Napster are long gone...)people are finding that they don't mind paying for it, because it's no longer worth the hassle to seek out free music and the companies have legitimized the charges and provided value.
The same can happen with music creation and recording software, if the users start to feel like they are getting some extra value and that there are good reasons to pay for the software legitimately, besides those of conscience. Because when left to the choice between conscience and $500 - for something that is obsolete almost as soon as it is purchased - conscience may win out on some of us, but will certainly lose on many others.
Just my two cents. I am neither endorsing piracy nor crucifying the pirates. There are two sides to every story. Apparently many people feel that the software is too expensive and that the updates are also expensive and that the high priced piece of software that they purchased did not stay current long enough to justify the high price. If so many people did not feel this way, then there would not be such an issue with piracy. People will pay for something if they feel that they are receiveing a fair value for their money. Example - if the average new car cost $200,000, then there would be many, many more cars stolen. But since the price is perceived as more or less fair, most people pay for their cars. So apparently many people feel that the cost of this software and the subsequent upgrades is too high. Of course we want the developers to continually improve and update the software - that's not at issue. But if not lifetime free updates, how about AT LEAST TWO UPDATES AT NO CHARGE after purchasing and registering a $500 program. That sounds fair to me, for both the consumer and the developer. If piracy were to drop, say even 15% - that would probably about pay for the revenue lost by the change in upgrade policy.
