Wednesday, July 20

Piracy is good

I'm back from a 3-day seminar in KL, entitled "Creating Multiple Sources of Income". Paid less than RM$199 for the whole course, so it was a great deal. The speaker was a well-known author by the name of Robert G. Allen, who wrote books such as "Multiple Streams of Income", "Creating Wealth", "Nothing Down" and "The One Minute Millionaire".

Also there was Penang's very own millionaire infoprenuer - Patric Chan. Very humble and smart guy.

I have learnt alot from the course. Will not go too much into details, but I was told this very interesting story - about what Bill Gates answered to the media when he was asked about his thoughts on piracy.

His reply? "If they want to pirate the softwares, they better be pirating my software than my competitors."

It then dawned on me that piracy (to a certain degree) is free publicity to people who will not pay more for your products. And that is brand awareness.

Will you have notice Crocs shoes if there wasn't so many people wearing the fake version of it?

13 comments:

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

True! Piracy is good to a certain degree. Nobody would imitate a pair of 'not so famous' jeans or watch.

Twilight Man said...

Yeah now Coach and Jimmy Choo became more famous. Thanks to the pirates! LOL.. Bill Gates is least worried about piracy these days as he's smart not to loose sleep on it. Piracy is like cancer!

Lily Riani said...

hemmm... point noted.... am buying dvd now! hahahha

HappySurfer said...

Shingo, that's a great price for a course. Trust you enjoyed KL too.

Piracy can also mean not having to reinvent the wheel, sort of.

Jo said...

Very true. Imitation is the highest form of flattery so if your products were to be pirated, it shows a lot.

Anonymous said...

What you said about brand awareness is true. But that's just a way of justifying piracy.

Anonymous said...

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Wenny said...

Brand awareness to justify the piracy ... how the wheel is turned. But nowadays, even people who buy into pirated goods are very particular on the quality ... so piracy also has to bucked up too!

HappySurfer said...

Hi there, Shingo. How are you? Hope all's well.

7-8 said...

First, Bill Gates was one of the earliest people to insist that software gets protected from piracy. That's how he became the richest man in the world in the first place.

Later on, now, ppl in the music industry are realising that the ppl who pirate your music are very often the same ppl who eventually buy it later on. So ppl are wondering about how much to give away and how much to charge for.

Because music industry ppl are suffering from piracy nonetheless.

Netster23 said...

Hello Chic magnet how are you? :D

HappySurfer said...

Well, hello there my busy friend. So good to have you drop by. In fact, I've been thinking of you on and off and wondering how you were doing.

Are you there yet? You know what I mean. Best wishes!

Fish is a good choice. So is chicken. :D

~Zhenna~ said...

Hmm hi Shingo, havent seen you for a while and hope you are doing well.. warmest regards!

^.^

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