Avoid pirated software
There is a huge push on the software market at the moment for discouraging the usage of pirated software around the world and for detecting those who are using illegal software copies either for personal or for business purposes. There are even bounties for those reporting people and companies using illegal copies of software. Can you trust your neighbours or coleagues ?
If BSA comes to you and checks your software, it is not enough to show them the CD and the authentic hologram label. They will ask you for papers proving the source from where you bought your copies of the software. And the vendor must be an authorized re-seller of that software.
Fact is that it is hard these days to be sure if your copy of say “Microsoft Office” is legal or not simply because there are too many sources around claiming that they sell legal copies of software.
Another problem is soon to come when Microsoft will move to the new versions of Windows and Office. At that moment, it is foreseable that you will need to upgrade your software to be able to open documents created with the new version of MS-Office. That is a moment when you will have to consider paying money again for licenses if you want to be able to open files and communicate with the users who have upgraded and which produce office documents in the new file formats.
However, there are always alternatives which at least you can try and evaluate if they are not by any chance a better choice either for personal use of for your business. I am referring here to the open source alternative software which is capable of offering you all the features you need in your daily work at the computer, either at home or in business, without license fees.
If you worry about not having a legal copy of Office software:
OpenOffice.org software is a completely legal and free alternative office suite offering you all the functionality you need in your daily office work. It allows you to do: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, database, and much more. It is also capable of opening and creating files in the MS-Office file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) and it even allows you to save your documents as PDF. All these and much more with no licensing costs at all. More, you can install it under Windows if your operating system is legally bought, or, if you use another operating system like Linux for example, there are versions of OpenOffice.org for that operating system too. For more information or for testing visit the OpenOffice.org website, read and get your legally licensed copy at no cost right now.
If you worry about having an illegal operating system:
There are other operating systems than Windows available on the market. Some of them are totally free of charge and you can download them from the Internet and install on your computer without worrying about not being legal.
For testing new and free operating systems here is a tip:
The Linux operating system - which comes in many variants created by various communities and companies worldwide - has versions which you can run from a CD and which you do not need to install on your computer in order to test them. If you do not know how to install an operating system this is a good solution for you to test Linux without being a system administrator.
You could download for free and burn on a CD the image for the Knoppix Linux operating system. Then you insert the CD in you CD-ROM drive and boot the computer from the CD.
The system will start up and you can explore Linux without worrying of breaking anything or erasing your existing files. It contains many great programs for navigating the Internet, reading emails, entertainment, creating graphics, printing, etc. It even contains the OpenOffice.org software described above.
When you are done testing it, you simply remove the CD and restart your computer and you are back to your current operating system as you know it. As simple as burning a CD and restarting your computer. It worth trying. To get a free and legal copy of Knoppix visit this website and use the Download link.
A few articles on campaigns fighting software piracy:
Written by cdriga on May 1st, 2006 with
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