Software Pains

I have always wondered why the software market seems generally undisturbed and resistant to the proliferation of pirated copies of various software products. In other words, why is software so expensive? I can relate this query to the pricing trend that CDs and DVDs have undergone in recent years. Before, visiting a video store is a gut-wrenching experience for me because I simply cannot afford to buy a favorite Kubrick film for more than a P1000.00. I find solace in the amazing black-market of pirated DVDs in Quiapo which is basically a treasure trove (pirate's chest, to be exact) of classic and cult films which would never have seen the light of day in Video City. One day,however, while looking for films to rent in a nearby VideoCity branch, I saw an original DVD copy of The Birds by Hitchcock and I almost bawled when I saw the price - a measly P350.00. I would not hesistate to buy it, of course, not only because it's a classic but because it's so dirt cheap. Now back to the issue of software pricing. I know, for example, that the man-woman-hours spent on software design may well justify the exorbitant prices that Microsoft keeps forcing down our throats but I do think that something's or someone's got to give. While the rest of the hardware industry (and telecoms) is trying to gut their brains out in finding ways to make technology cheaper so as to widen their market base, huge software companies cannot seem to find a way(other than cracking down on computer shops in SC) to make their products affordable to most of us. I do not want to get into any discussion on intellectual property rights and why we should respect it. Because as a consumer, I personally cannot see why I should incentivize the efforts of Microsoft to create Vista when I am almost certain that the version could be passe in a year! And while my DVDs certainly has an aesthetic value which would far outlast the value of the money that I parted with, I just do not see how Microsoft Word 1994 can ever retain its market worth in the cut-throat world of software development and competition. To reminisce the famous SNL-Steve-Jobs skit, why should you buy a software the features of which becomes obsolete at the exact same moment you get hold of it? There's just no point.