Pirate Ahoy…

I have been kept occupied for the last 3 weeks or so, both by my work at office and the application process that I hardly could think of any topic to write on. I wouldn’t have written one now either, if it had not been for the innocent little mail that promised to haul my ass to court and slap whatever legal notice they can get their hands on, if I do not stop doing what I was doing (The keyword “was”).

The mail was from my ISP (I am leaving out the specifics cos I want to maintain real secrecy over this issue. I will objectively state the content of that mail ). So this was the middle of the month and I had paid my bill only the week before, so I thought it must be an offer or something to upgrade my package.

The letter began like this. “There are international agencies monitoring the internet traffic on an on-going basis so as to prevent malicious software from pervading the web and protect the user from harm and also to prevent users from indulging in unauthorised activities and secure their privacy.”

So it began well and I just assumed that it was an advisory mail and began to skim through the rest of the contents. Only when my eyes caught the words legal action, disconnection, national and international cyber crime laws, copyright infringement, you-are-gonna-be-screwed-for-good-you-punk and my phone number did I realise that something was seriously amiss.

So this time I went through that letter thoroughly again and only then did I understand that this was a legal warning from my ISP to stop downloading copyright products illegally from the web. A LEGAL WARNING!!!

When pressed for more details, my ISP sent another mail that originally came from the Business Software Alliance, a group which monitors the internet for illegal activities. That mail contained details about the infringement that I made. I reproduce the same after having removed specific details. (Click on the image to get the big picture )

 I have heard from my friends in the US that piracy is a very serious offence there and a few students were even arrested for downloading pirated software using the college’s network. But this is the first time that someone I know has got a warning from an international agency and that someone unfortunately happened to be me. While I cannot justify my actions for such an act, this letter did really set off a chain of thoughts.

One of the reasons why people engage in piracy is because of the astronomical cost of the software involved, especially in developing countries where no one will really want to spend one month of their salary on the Operating System alone after having spent two months of their salary on buying an entire PC. While an operating system is the most essential component of a PC, its exorbitant cost makes people turn to piracy as one of the options to source it (The other option is of course to opt for Free and Open Source Software – FOSS).

I am not an expert in pricing and stuff, but let us put things in perspective. In many developing economies like India, you can safely state that about 70 percent of the consumers are price conscious. They are sensitive to pricing of any commodity, right from something as common as your clothes to something as expensive as cars. So much so that when they are forced to spend Rs.10000 on the operating system and another Rs. 10000 for the Office software, they immediately opt for the cost effective option – pirated software. They are simply not willing to spend so much on the overheads that will take their cost of ownership to huge levels.

Let us take a simple example – that of an Audio Disc. In India, the price of an audio disc of a local artist rarely exceeds Rs. 150, while the works of International Artists are never priced below Rs. 400. This naturally puts them out of reach of many of the artists’ fans who will be willing to buy the original if only it was priced at a more affordable level. While it may make some sense to price the CD at $10 in the US or 1$ per song, it makes no sense to the average Indian consumer to pay Rs 45 for one song when he can get the audio cassette of a local artist for the same price.

The same can be extrapolated and applied to other similar cases, software in this case. The key here is the pricing. If only the software were available at more affordable prices, the piracy levels will come down significantly. Because everyone will prefer to buy the original rather than using a P2P network to download the software, getting emails from sources threatening legal action and writing blogs on them.

So the few readers who read my blog, I hope this served the educational purpose by telling you that you cannot download a software illegally in India and get away with that. For all that you know, they are already watching you…

Adios…

Last Bench – A Landmark…

For most part of my college life, I had been a last bencher. Students who have sat in the last benches always have interesting anecdotes up their sleeve, as their vantage position give them a tactical advantage over those who sit in the first couple of rows, who unfortunately have nothing to tell to their grandchildren other than how they were the 1st in the class to answer the teacher’s questions. Poor grandchildren…

A last bench is the place where students have consummate fun. You can sleep, stare out of the window, eat, message, laugh at jokes, read novels and, when having an exam, pass papers, copy from micro xeroxes…The opportunities are unlimited.

I have had my share of fun in the last bench as well.  Right from my first semester to the last. There are so many incidents that happened, that when I think of them, they are the only ones that I remember vividly from my college life.

There was this exam once where I was the last one to finish. The teacher was a little careless and so all of us took everything to the exam hall so that we can atleast get 10 out of 25 marks. Everything here means textbooks, classnotes, microxeroxes etc…This was one particular exam for which we already new what questions will come,as another class had already taken the exam and we had the question paper. And this teacher doesn’t prepare another paper for a re-exam. But inspite of this we didn’t study. Except for a bunch of  guys who spoil everything that is fun(More about them to come). At the end of the exam, I found that my bench was filled with xeroxes of all kinds that mankind ever invented, micro to macro, and there were a couple of textbooks under it. The teacher only needed to stand up, for me to be dragged to the Principal. But I knew he wouldn’t. And my exam paper was later published as the most comprehensive report on “Electronic Devices and Circuits”.

(Its a different story though, how all of us barely answered two questions in the semester exams. Some of us gave the same answer for 3 different questions, some combined all the questions and wrote it down as the answer, some drew a DC motor for a MOSFET circuit, some wrote a BASIC program for a question that asked us to write a mnemonic so that the microprocessor can do something. Half the class didnt know what mnemonics meant and the rest didnt know what microprocessor meant) .

Passing coments, cracking jokes and playing the fool are an integral part of the last benchers’ life. But there are a few losers out there in the 1st few benches whose only job is to get u caught by the teacher. They don’t just laugh to themselves at your wisecracks and leave it at that, but they turn towards you and laugh, acknowledging that they understood that silly joke and they are ROFL. Makes it easier for the teacher to pick you out and lower your grades.

But you teach them a lesson by getting their mobile phones, turning the ringer on, changing the ringtone to one that is…well…surprising, raising its volume to maximum and giving it back to them. And then you call them up, sitting in the last bench. Amen. (I was a victim to this once, when a fellow last bencher took the mobile phone from my friend sitting next to me and tweaked it, gave it back n called. When the phone rang, my friend was shocked. And instinctively threw the phone to me. I caught it at the exact moment the teacher turned from the board to face the class. Me and my friend were the only students to get a B grade that sem. The entire class had either an A or an S).

There is so much you can do sitting in the last bench. So much… 

If you notice keenly, it will be the last benchers who make interesting conversationalists. And most of them will talk in their mother tongue and not English. And most of them will be hostellers. They work for the welfare for the class. They are the only ones who will participate in everything – dramas, dances, plays and not just paper presentations. Most of them will be on the panel of atleast one society in college. They are the ones who will bail fellow students out of trouble. They can make a class lively and yet, they will be humble. You get the drift…

There is this notion among everyone that the last benchers are the poor performers in the class, while those in the 1st few benches are the ones who make it big in life. Which is very very wrong, if you understand what I mean. The last benchers are looked down upon by new teachers, whereas experienced professors know their potential, inspite of all the fooling around that they do(i am referring to the students). In my class, out of the 9 students who passed in First Class With Distinction, 5 of them were from the last benches. And out of them , 2 are now abroad and 2 of them will  be going abroad soon enough.

Its not that the first benchers do not make it big, but when they look back in life, they will realise that they didn’t have a life when they were in college. And all that they will be able to talk about is their equations and their projects. And their wives will file for a divorce. Unless they are nerds themselves. But the last benchers have so much to tell to their counterparts that by the time they finish narrating it, they would have retired.

So my dear reader(s), do not miss an opportunity to sit in the last benches if you get one. Its loaded with life. You may study whenever u want (meaning at night or in weekends, not after 5 years sitting in the same class), but the fun you have in college is perhaps the best that you will have in your life. It doesn’t mean you can throw caution to the wind. Be responsible, and you can keep your grandchildren entertained.

Proud to be a last bencher….

Adios….