Overheard: Pirates of perchance

The only real limitation on your copying was the number of floppy disks you could afford! Graham Pockett, Why I Started CFS (or “Confessions Of A Software Pirate”)

According to the Business Software Alliance’s fifth-annual study on global software piracy, softlifting is still a big problem — especially in “emerging markets.” It makes sense to me. Back in the day, a lot of us were pirates of perchance — as in “perchance we can get this program for free from a friend.”

We used to call it Warez.

Interestingly enough, can you guess what software apps the BSA says are lifted most? Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe Acrobat, and Symantec’s PC Anywhere.