To say Brazil has a problem with piracy would be an understatement. With one exception (that I’ll get to) I haven’t seen a single legal movie, album or piece of software for sale since arriving here. Mostly the bootlegs are sold by shady-looking street vendors, but you can also pick up a copy of Windows or Office at a newsstand for 10 reals (about 5 USD).
Avast! Thar be pirates!
However, yesterday, I noticed one street vendor selling the first non-pirated piece of software I’ve seen:
Yes, that is a shady, bootleg-looking copy of Kurumin Linux. I bought it, mostly for the novelty factor, and as a souvenir. But also on the theory that I was supporting free software in some minor way (although probably more directly supporting shady street vendors).
For reasons that I have trouble articulating, the idea of selling pirated software seems more objectionable to me than simply giving it away free over a file-sharing network. I think it’s a moral distinction: profiting from somebody else’s work seems dishonest. Legally, I’m not aware of any distinction between illegally “distributing” copyrighted works on a street corner or on bittorent.
I think current intellectual property law is badly broken and in need of major reform, but I’m not a big fan of software piracy, either. Not only does piracy potentially hurt developers, but it also distorts the market and probably hampers the adoption of free software.
What’s ironic is that I’m sure the vendor had no idea that the Brazilian Linux distro was the only thing on his table (ok, cardboard box) that he actually is allowed to sell legally. When I said I wanted to buy it, he flipped through a big CD wallet, but didn’t find a copy. He told me to wait for 5 minutes, stashed his cardboard display in an alley, and disappeared. A while later, he came back with the disc, and made sort of a quick, sketchy hand-off.
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