21% of us are software pirates

I trust piracy stats from Macrovision about as much as I trust a politician to tell the truth when he's trying to get my vote. Macrovision are the software equivalent of a travelling medicine show, selling people something they think they need, but that ultimately, does nothing. So, take this all with a giant heaping pinch of sodium chloride.

If you own a PS2 or an Xbox, there is a one in five chance you're a dirty, filthy pirate. At least according to our friends at Macrovision. Also, three quarters of the dirty, filthy pirates would have paid for the software had they not been able to obtain it for free. So, the question is, did this "survey" bother to find out if any of these alleged one in five were the sort of idiot who actually paid money for pirated software? Just wondering… I have to wonder how they did this. "Hi, I work for a company that makes copy protection, tell me, do you pirate software?"

It never ceases to amaze me how anyone can take Macrovision seriously, when the P2P networks carry ample evidence that their protection mechanisms don't do a damn thing. Well, aside from cause a ridiculous number of problems for legitmate consumers, who can't run the game they've just bought, and yet can't return it because the seal is broken, and the store assumes they copied it.

God bless the software industry!