This is my 2 cents to everybody in this forum. Don't pirate software it's going to cost you more in legal fees and fines. Use alternatives to the software you require or keep the software you still have a bit longer.
I've always tried to buy the software I use and download. I have legit copies of Nero, admuncher, power archiver, download accelerator. Each of these is worth the price of admission. Did you get busted or something?
I can never get busted I use Open Source. Which is why I never understood why small business don't embrace it. Try suing me for pirating. I will send all my friends a copy of all my software.
Illegal software is not a wise choice if you are doing business. Once you get busted, you will really suffer financially.
Some of us develop software and put them up for sale for a living. It is disheartening to see our hard work just stolen without giving us any due credits for our creations. All the money, time and effort put into the development all goes to waste. Paying for the software you use will encourage the developers to improve them. If the developers do not get paid, we will abandon the project and no one gets away the smarter. Software Piracy is just wrong. I cannot say that I am rich from what I do but it put food on the table for the family.
I agree with you totally that is why when I can't afford the software that I require I use Open Source. It might take me a couple of days ofgetting used to but at least I'm not stealing another mans money. I use Firefox for my browser, OpenOffice for my Word, Spreed Sheet, Presentation, Database need, Linux for my Servers, Gimp for my photos, etc. That really adds up to a a lot of savings.
I think you miss the point. People work very hard to develop software. It's not a matter of hours but months and even years. It takes a long time to develop software and that is money you can only make buy selling it. Think about it, how would you like it if you worked hard and your boss did not paying you.
True there are always open source alternatives to almost everything anymore! And most the time the open source alternative is better because of all the people involved working so hard to truly make it as good as possible instead of just trying to make a bunch of money ripping off other peoples ideas.
Using pirated software is not totally wrong. For anyone who has money to buy, it is totally wrong to steal the software; it's just plain unfair and illegal. But for anyone living in 3rd-world country who earns less than $50 a month, I think it's fair and square. Do you expect the poor who can afford only one meal a day to feed the multi-billion-dollar software companies? You may want to ask why these poor people need pirated software for what if they couldn't afford dinner not to mention a computer. Right, in this millennium even in 3rd-world country, ton of jobs now require English and computer skills. Computerization and globalization have force them to be able to use computer. Having little money, they can only afford learning at the schools running by pirated windows, office, mavis beacon and such. The fee is like 10 bucks for the whole windows and office courses. That's only possible with pirated software. I say 99% of computer users in 3rd-world countries use pirated copies for the sake of survival. Microsoft and many other software companies have known this for years. They don't have any problem with it, why would you? It would be too inhumane for them to come here and sue the poor people or take their software away. Why wouldn't those poor people use open source software? If you're asking this, throw away your Microsoft Windows and Office and ask yourself why you use them. It's easy to use, standard, most popular, and compatible with computer system of the outsourcers. Your office has the software. They require you to be able to use them. So you cannot instead choose to learn some incompatible open-source software for the sake of ethics. And these commercial programs have become the standard long BEFORE open-source movements. Yes, Win 3.1 and 95 shell were functioning well years before KDE and GNOME were born. You cannot blame them, for they do not have the choice like you do. This is my opinion, being a software programmer. I wouldn't call it "stealing" for poor people using pirated copies of my software, because without the pirated copy they wouldn't buy my software either. So where's the loss/gain here?
rmartish: kudos brandnewx: So where are these 3rd-world people getting the money to buy their computer they are installing this pirated software ? And I believe open-source software is very compatible these days. You can easily open and save .DOC and .PSD files with their counterparts.
I have nothing against anyone using an open source product. I am a shareware developer and I do what I do to put food on the table. I am no big multinational corporate and every single dollar counts for me. The thing is that like a 3rd world citizen like me, there are many other shareware developers from those countries trying to make a living from our skills so if people were to pirate our software, wouldn't we suffer too ? True, it is possible that they may not buy our software because they do not have the money to do so but each download would inevitably cost us in bandwidth charges. I broke down the first time I found my software being hacked. It is heartaching to find that I've spent thousands of dollars and 8 months of my time without pay to get my first program up and trying to sell for a few dollars. But the second week, I see it listed on warez sites and some keygen codes or something. It was indeed not a good feeling. I felt that my world has collapsed on me. That was 8 years ago. Although I still see my programs being listed in those warez sites, I am trying to numb my frustration as far as I could or else there is just no way to survive. Theft is theft. So if you do not have the money to use them then don't. In this time and age, there are freewares and open source applications. If you cannot afford the real thing then go for them. Personally, I use a word processor only about once or twice a year and could not justify the cost of purchasing Microsoft Word or Office so I ended up using Open Office and before that, I was using Wordpad which meets my needs. There are alternatives around. Ultimately, in the end, we are all just trying to make a living and to survive in this world.
You can't be serious about people pirating software? You said your a software programmer? Really? How many hours of sweat and going blind staring at a screen have you spent? How times did you wish you could go out with your friends but didn't? How many headaches did you get trying to figure out why your program was not working?
No, I am not saying that piracy is right. I do all I can to prevent my applications from being hacked but I do not have a huge budget to fight piracy, there is really little that I can do. I don't have the resources and the finances to fight global privacy. Ever since I started this business, I have given up my free time and stopped going out with my friends. Apart from the 4 to 6 hours of time I am away from the computer, I would be either coding, promoting my applications or answering support questions. I tried going for holidays before but 2/3rd of the time I spend in my room trying to fix issues. Of course, in my perfect world, I would want to eliminate piracy altogether and have everyone who uses my programs to pay for them. But I have to face up to reality, there is so much I can really do. I cannot spend all my waking hours tracking down and breaking down all the pirates, I do what I can but in the end, I have responsibility to my customers and those who depends on me to survive. The good part of it is that there are honest people around and they do keep me going and keep my dreams alive. I think you misread what I said. I never consenting to software piracy in any shape or form or by any parties, rich or poor. I am just saying that if they cannot afford my programs, they can go to freewares and open source and not resort to piracy. If you cannot pay, don't break someone's rice bowl. And for your information, I do not use any pirated software now or before. What I cannot afford now, I saved up to buy it. If I have to use my credit card to do so, I would and take 12 months or longer to pay it up fully.
Software should be paid for if you intend using it, simple as that. There is one exception to that rule, in my view, and that is Adobe software, which should be thieved at every opportunity, simply because Adobe charge UK customers more than double the US price for the same software, which to me, is outright piracy in itself. Karma and all ...
i have to laugh because the topic is really something do you even know how many users use piracy software? there are tons of warez forums out there and billions of people visit them every year.the point is no matter what we say what the maker says or for that matter what the fbi says piracy will never be stoped im not saying i condone it and i have never used piracy software but when you see a price of $700 or more for a program some people just cant afford it so they go another way to get it