Do you use pirated software?

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Apr 6, 2010 at 5:24pm
if yes, what kind of software? OS, image manipulation, development, etc..
Apr 6, 2010 at 6:31pm
No. Everything I use was obtained legally.
Apr 6, 2010 at 6:46pm
Me either. Everything I'm using now is legit.
Apr 6, 2010 at 7:17pm
Same here. With Linux there is no need for illegal obtained software. Even with windows i can always use all MSDNAA products via the university.
Apr 6, 2010 at 7:27pm
Yeah MSDNAA rocks.
Apr 6, 2010 at 7:29pm
What do you mean by pirated software?
Which I stole from the computer store? No.
Which I borrowed from a bunch of other people I've never met? Yes.
Apr 6, 2010 at 8:04pm
Me either. Everything I'm using now is legit.
does that mean you use pirated software before?

EDIT: forget my question everyone, it's meaningless.
Last edited on Apr 6, 2010 at 8:08pm
Apr 6, 2010 at 8:32pm
LOL. I use legit software and free stuff only. But I can't imagine anybody saying, "yeah I torrent lots of stuff'.
Apr 6, 2010 at 9:03pm
But I can't imagine anybody saying, "yeah I torrent lots of stuff'.


Why can't you?
Apr 6, 2010 at 9:25pm
But I can't imagine anybody saying, "yeah I torrent lots of stuff'.

What did I say a few posts ago (in other words)?
Apr 6, 2010 at 9:38pm
yeah I torrent lots of stuff
Apr 6, 2010 at 10:02pm
I would imagine people would avoid being so blatant about it. I can personally guarantee that that's the case with me.
Apr 6, 2010 at 10:51pm
closed account (iw0XoG1T)
I occasionally rip a Dora vid--not really software, but still a form copyright infringement.
Apr 6, 2010 at 10:57pm
I'm going to laugh very hard if the RIAA (and sister international agencies) has us all investigated. (But I'm up here in Canada and therefore a little bit farther away. Hahaha.)
Apr 6, 2010 at 11:18pm
There's nothing wrong with piracy (not morally, anyway). If I like software, I'm willing to pay for it. If I don't like it, I don't use it, so it doesn't matter anyway.

I don't use as much pirated software as I could; I tend to go for open source equivalents (e.g. the GIMP instead of Photoshop) where they exist and are possible...
Apr 7, 2010 at 6:54am
Let me tell you the one positive aspect about corruption: laws nobody cares about are not enforced.
We have copyright laws here, but unlike the US, which has big music and film industries, there are almost no producing firms here, and the ones that do exist are too small anyway. There are no such ridiculous things as an MPAA or RIAA, and of course no person has ever been sued for millions of dollars for downloading a few songs. Talk about disproportionate retribution.
The result is that copyright laws are simply not enforced. To name one example, there's a bazaar on a park in the city (Parque Rivadavia, in case you were wondering). Its original purpose was the trading and swapping of used books and other printed material, but in the last few (I imagine somewhere between 10 and 15) years a few stalls have opened where you can buy pirated CDs and DVDs right off the street. The place isn't in a high crime area or anything like that and it's not like it's a secret. Everyone knows about it.

But to answer the question, yes, but it has been declining with time. There comes a time when you become too lazy to find cracks, test inside a VM (as compromising the system is not an option), and waste bandwidth on stupid shit.
Now, movies and music are a different subject.
Apr 7, 2010 at 2:37pm
Even here in the US it is very common to find stalls selling pirated media at flea markets and such.
Apr 7, 2010 at 4:54pm
The only time I have used an illegal copy of commercial grade software is for learning purposes. For example a few years ago before I purchased my copy of Maya I was studying using a free learning edition which I downloaded from the autodesk website. I then purchased a book to study with... my laptop crashed and I lost my free edition so I go to download a new one to find out they no longer offer it... now all the books for the version were specifically created to be used with the Maya learning edition and at the time I wasn't about to fork over big bucks for a full copy. So essentially every one of those books published are now completely worthless and of course they would not refund my money :). So in defiance I acquired a cracked version and continued my studies until I decided it was the right tool for the job and then purchased it. I did the same thing back in the Macromedia glory days with their MX suite and the same with Adobe's CS suite.

I personally see nothing wrong with it in such scenarios, but the moment you start to turn a profit on it I feel you should purchase a legit copy.

All the convenience stores where I live (and this is in an up scale area) sell pirated movies. In fact they attempt to upsell you if you're there just to buy a snack. The cds are stacked up in front of the register and they inform you when they have "new releases." I've even seen them do it with cops lol.
Apr 7, 2010 at 5:39pm
Well, the first time I ever pirated anything was a game that I had bought. I lost the product key and the company refused to give me another one, so I downloaded the game instead. Their fault for being retarted and refusing to give product keys to paying customers.

Even now I'm downloading something to do with offices and the year 2007 and accessing things. I need to do my ICT coursework, after all, and the version of Office 2007 I have doesn't come with Access. :)

I also tend to download game OSTs, but most of the games that have music I like are from Sega and [S]NES/N64 games...

Then again I have taken a liking to the L4D OST... :)
Apr 7, 2010 at 6:37pm
I use pirated excel. I wouldn't be still be using it if I didn't write my first math algorithms on it - I have not yet rewritten everything I did in Visual Basic for Excel in C++.

In other words: first the big companies choose not to protect their software (although they can), so you can get used to it. You lose your time to teach yourself to it, instead of some free equivalent. Then they suddenly declare you a "pirate". I have not killed or robbed anybody yet, especially on a ship.

I got offered recently to use a cracked version of a LaTeX editor, WinEdit. Why should I, when there are like 10 free ones, at least two of which being super good (the best one on Windows :( the second best cross-platform)?

Speaking of free programs, which are the important programs you use that have no free equivalent? (Games, ... which others?)
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