Wants to educate them about the risks posed by pirated software with nearly 74% of respondents expected to purchase or receive computer hardware or software over the next year.
The Business Software Alliance, “the leading voice of the world’s software industry, ” today announced the results of a national poll analyzing the purchasing intentions of college students.
The poll, conducted by Washington, DC-based RT Strategies during the week of November 10, asked 400 currently enrolled college students about their plans to buy computers and software. Nearly 74% of participants expect to purchase or receive computer hardware or software over the next year. An even greater percentage, 79%, expect to be “involved” in such a purchase this holiday season by advising a friend or relative on a purchase, making a purchase for themselves, or buying someone else a gift.
On the subject of potential software piracy, 60% of the students told pollsters they “know where to go on the Internet to download software for free or at a discount.” A recent BSA report tried to intimidate readers by emphasizing that buying or downloading software from questionable Internet sites can “expose users to hidden cyber security threats such as viruses, spyware and ‘back doors’ for identity thieves.”
Some 30% of respondents said that “most students … don’t purchase software from an authorized source anymore, because the same software is usually available for free or at a discount from an unauthorized source.”
What sources do students turn to for pirated software? Though the most popular response was “friends and family,” the students as a group demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of where to find pirated software. Asked to identify the software sources they might use, 82% named an array of questionable sources, including P2P sources such as Limewire and BitTorrent; shopping sites such as iOffer.com and eBay; and classified ad sites like craigslist. Only 18% cited legitimate sources only.
When the students were warned of the potential risks from using pirated software, 43% said they would be more cautious, and 31% said they would “never” obtain software from an unauthorized source. Only 12% were unfazed, telling questioners they would still borrow or download software from unauthorized sources.
I’m not sure why ANYBODY would be worried about borrowing software from an unauthorized source.
“The results of our holiday survey show reasons for both concern and optimism,” said Rodger Correa of the BSA. “College students are some of the savviest consumers of computers and software. We want to make sure students, their families, and friends who may be tempted to obtain software from unauthorized sources will stop and think: Is this legitimate software? Am I about to jeopardize an expensive piece of hardware to save a few bucks on software? If I put this program on my computer, will I expose my personal and financial information to the crooks who supplied this pirated software?
“The poll shows that most college students know where to go for easy access to pirated software,” Correa added. “But it also shows that, once they are educated about the risks, they are far more likely to realize that the risks outweigh the potential benefits.”
It’s always funny to hear groups like the BSA try to use fear to intimidate people into plunking down hundreds of dollars for software they can’t afford in the first place. It’s all a matter of finding trusted P2P sources and vetting what you download.
jared@zeropaid.com
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Wouldn’t it be great if students could afford 700$ pieces of software. Do they expect students to pay 100$ for a 1 year license? Not likely. Students try and save anyway they can and if software is required for their class they will definitely pirate it. Personally for software I mostly use open source solutions currently all software on my computer is legitimate.
funny how no one mentioned that there’s tons of freeware alternatives out there and some good stuff at that.
openoffice faststone avg adaware audacity paint.net to name a few
i personally use all of the above and am very happy.
BSA does not want you to know about those programs for obvious reasons…
The survey mentioned is misleading.
“60% of the students told pollsters they “know where to go on the Internet to download software for free or at a discount.””
They didn’t specify that the software wasn’t freeware nor that the discount places were not legit. Most students know they can get discount software from their college like Microsoft Student Alliance. They are just trying to scare people with retarded logic.
In other news 40% of college students lie when answering polls.