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Techno Page
It was not
long ago that hundreds and thousands of pirated CDs were freely
available practically anywhere. Even though these shops (as well
as video parlours which rented video cassettes, VCDs and DVDs) may
disappear overnight, it will not be easy for them to dispose of
their merchandise in a short time. As a result, some of these illegal
products may enter the market in the guise of their original counterparts.
Counterfeit products with a high price tag may continue to lurk
in the shadows. So how can you verify the authenticity of the products
that you want to buy? "Original
VCDs contain a unique IFPI Code which cannot be duplicated on the
innermost ring of the CD," says Koshala of Vibrations at Union
Place, Colombo 02. He also warns that the price itself is not an
indicator of its authenticity pointing out that prices of some 'original'
audio CDs are as low as Rs. 175. A lower price is not an indicator
of pirated products as much as a higher price is not an indicator
of authentic goods. If pirated
stuff is a whole lot cheaper than the 'original' ones, why buy 'originals'
anyway? Koshala says that one reason will be the quality factor.
He assures that original audio and video CDs are pressed with three
protective shields whereas their duplicates rarely have any protection
on their surfaces. The issues relating to computer software are quite different to those of the entertainment industry. I will not go into detail as they have been the point of much discussion during the past weeks. We welcome your opinions, ideas and comments on the subject and how it affects you personally. Keep the e-mail flowing in and please bear with me if I am unable to reply each one individually. Positive
effects of video games A series of experiments have shown that habitual video-game players were better able than non-players to focus on visually complex situations, keep track of multiple items at once and to process fast-changing information. To rule out the possibility that their results simply reflected a tendency for gamers to be people with inherently superior visual skills, they subjected non-gamers to action-video-game training, in which they played Medal of Honor for an hour a day, 10 days in a row. Meanwhile, a control group was trained on Tetris, which, unlike Medal of Honour requires focusing only on a single object at a time. After that short training period, the Medal of Honour group exhibited improved visual skills. Sure is a medal of honor for the die-hard gamers or what! Piracy will
continue When you consider
software piracy, I prefer to be a little lenient on the matter as
I feel that pirated software is a boon for those aspiring young
men and women who follow IT as their chosen vocation. Much of the
software commonly found on our computers (except for a privileged
few) is pirated. Even some of our pious ladies and gentlemen who
wrote or rather e-mailed their responses on the evils of software
piracy probably perhaps 'unwittingly' did so on MS Word which was
probably picked up for under a hundred rupees at a 'hole in the
wall' shop. While I respect their sense of moral values, I believe
that we must all face reality. Though Mr.
Alwis points out that the legitimate companies that produce these
software give special concessionary rates to students, I feel I
must remind you what an average middle class student faced with
buying, for instance, software X for thousands of rupees from the
legitimate source or for a hundred rupees will do. As some would
say, "You do the math"! Besides we have the option of
keeping up with new versions without emptying our purses. If large software
companies wish to eradicate software piracy, they must not attempt
to monopolise the software industry. To understand why piracy exists,
we must search for the root cause. It is due to the fact that the
larger software companies hold to ransom Third World countries such
as ours by attaching fantastic price tags on their software. If
they wish to put software pirates out of business, they must compete
with them by making their software more accessible to poor Third
World countries. If pirates can do it large software companies can
do better and revenue lost to software pirates can be gained. I have observed
a certain electronics giant and music company producing media players
such as Hi-Fis, audio, video and even DVD players that support CDR,
Mp3, DVDR and other formats on which pirated software and music
are produced. I suppose they feel that it's ok to let unscrupulous
people rip off competition, but cry foul when they're staring down
their own barrel! Talk about double standards! I feel that piracy
will continue in some form and scale until the software giants decide
to provide their software at a more realistic price tag. Improve your
computer literacy |
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