Ethical geek never talk about the
piracy cause he knows how much it pains looking at someone stealing your work
and remain handcuffed with nothing to do to protect your work but African
ethical geeks they survive by the use of pirating sites that is the hard
reality. My life without being able to seed and leach software online could be miserable
not because I like being a pirate but because of my life circumstances. I like
to learn new things from Lynda.com but I don’t have enough money to put my own internet
at home live aside money to pay and download the materials and tutorials from
Lynda.com. That is just an example but it is a daily life challenge for African
geeks when it comes in fighting against piracy. I used to ask some of my friends
why do they like piracy they told me they don’t like piracy but piracy is the
way of life in 3rd world countries.
“Back
in 2008 when I started graphics designing and interface development my friend
come to me and tells me the actual price of Adobe Photoshop CS3 on the market.
It was almost equal to the quarter of my annual college fees and if I would go
for master collection it could be almost the cost to cover quarter of my Degree
course then he told me you either go for pirated copy or drop your college to
buy a CD of Adobe master collection so that you can master graphics. I said to
myself if I went to my parents with this idea they will kill me but I wanted to
learn graphics I was so addicted with the beauty of Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe
Premiere I admit I did it, I was a piracy for the first time in my life” words
by a reputed graphics designer and software developer who didn’t like his name
to be mentioned so that is the situation on the ground.
I
personally discourage stealing people works online but these guys why are they
not ready to give back to the community a little? Even in these poor 3rd
world countries they just want to make millions of money without even serving
the local community big up to Google and Open Source Projects for giving
helping hands for African Computer Pioneers. They open the gate to new
opportunities every day. The Google Africa Project, the incubation, the hubs
and the local ICT open source project will enhance the capability of African
developers and at one point of time we will have our own software and
applications to serve our continent and countries. Even my country Tanzania has
been witnessing these developments in technology under the TanzICT project
under ministry of science and technology. Application which would be available
for free or at the cheaper African cost so that people can afford to use them
only then the days of pirates bay and other illegal torrents sites will be
over.
Even
said so it still illegal to access for free items on market in the internet
world without the concern of the owner if its movie, game, applications even a
single of a musician you like, without the prior concern of the supplier of the
work. Help Africa to reduce Piracy, Help
them to recover their inner energy in technology not by just providing money
and resources but by enhancing their creative minds with project which can
impact their local communities that will be giving back to the community and
that is the only way to stop piracying “Forget profit and think about serving
the society first”.