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JordanTimes.com - AMMAN -
An Amman computer system builder has been sentenced to three months in prison for pirating software, the first time in the Kingdom’s history that the court has imprisoned someone for software piracy.

I wonder how the average Jordanian with the average income be be able to afford such unbalanced software pricing ? I wonder if Jordan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA) take into account that average Jordanians cannot afford $150 for software license because that amount is actually very close to be their monthly income.

Thankfully I'm a free Software user and developer, thankfully I don't have to pay license to anyone nor I have to hide my laptop if the anti-piracy squad showed up.

That doesn't mean I don't encourage people to license their software and operating systems, I have a licensed copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Yes, I paid for it but because I was forced to do so when I bought my laptop, there was no option to buy it without paying extra $150 for Mircosoft Windows license even though I never used it, right after I got the laptop I installed my lovely, solid GNU/Linux flavoured with Ubuntu, unfortunately at that time we didn't have Ubuntu flavoured dell laptops and desktops for of course my next laptop going to be dell or any brand that has Gnu/Linux pre-installed.

I'm not against such laws in general but it has to be reasonable, First the Municipality have at least 40 DVD shop selling illegal copies of DVDs and they tax them too so basically the Municipality is a partner in the crime if they are aware of the legal side of what they're selling.

You wont sense how hard and nearly impossible for almost all Jordanians to license their software especially when you know that you have to license every single non-free software on your computer and when you know that most of Jordanians cannot afford to pay that amount of money for software especially when buying a legally up and running computer cost would be very close to buying a used car or a small piece of land praying that their children would benefit from price increase later.

Microsoft Windows Vista license for home user doesn't go over $300 for home user I guess (Correct me Mr Windows if I'm committing a mistake here.) or check Amazon.com for a very confusing pricing and naming scheme, anyway it's fine amount of money to be paid to get your computer up and running legally but yet you have to license every single software you are using, no matter what.

If you were unfortunate designer who's creativity was discovered while playing with illegal copy of Adobe Photoshop or any of their well respected Adobe products now you have to rethink about licensing what you are using of their products and here is a listing of some of their products pricing taken from Adobe.com official online store.

• 
  Photoshop CS3 - FROM $999.00
  


• 
  Creative Suite 3 Production Premium- FROM $1,699.00
  


• 
  Creative Suite 3 - Web Premium - FROM $1,599.00
  


• 
  Creative Suite 3 Design Premium - FROM $1,799.00
  


• 
  Acrobat 8 - FROM $449.00
  


• 
  Photoshop CS3 - FROM $649.00
  

of course story wont end here but there are lots of more software to pay for and get them licensed which means if you want to buy a %100 legally running and usable computer then you have to pay around $2500 dollar and yet it might only be for a single use.

Do we have to talk about licensing your games?

Do you know that using Windows as your primary operating system means you have to buy an anti virus software because even you are paying for the operating system and the vendor is making a quite good money out of that, they didn't manage to deliver a solid that can be virus free operating system.

which would brought a smart question, If you like the idea of licensing your software then why you don't go with lovely operating system like Mac? and only then you will have a cool, solid, fun to use and virus free operating system and loads of free software in many online repositories.


If you don't like the idea of paying money for software or you cannot afford it like me then you should definitely go with a GNU/Linux operating system, maybe a seriously popular distribution like Ubuntu Linux.


Again, Software pricing should be balanced and according to a country income not globalised else someone has to globalise the income which wont happen at least in the next five thousand year or maybe four to sound more accurate and credible.


Finally, I'm all with running a legal computer but I cannot afford to play this game with Microsoft based operating system and I was never properly introduced to Mac so until then I will stick with my lovely, solid and highly customizable ubuntu linux.





[tags] gnu linux,jordantimes,laptop,software piracy,jipa,dell laptops,amman,municipality,ubuntu,free software,software license,windows license,pirating software,software user,intellectual property association,mircosoft,illegal copies [/tags]