MidnightObsidian wrote:
That is very true. I own a cracked copy of Flash MX, WindowsXP Corporate, OfficeXP, Adobe Essentials (among virtually every other piece of software in existence). Sure, I use them all the time. Sure, neither Macromedia nor Microsoft nor Adobe made any money. But if you think about it, they wouldn't have made any money whether I downloaded it or not. I don't have hundreds of dollars to pay for software, so I wouldn't have bought it either way. In my opinion, they aren't losing (or gaining) anything. I'm just benefitting.
If software was less expensive, I'd be happy to shell out some money for it. It just doesn't make sense to me to pay fifty dollars for a game I'm going to beat in a week. It takes me several to get that much money.
W00t for you! Why support legitimately free software like all those open source programs you might hear people talk about when you can steal professional quality software?
Facts for the morally bankrupt
If you think software is too expensive - *dont
USE it*. Professional quality, say, art packages are expensive for a reason - they are for *professional* users - you dont need Photoshop to make a sig for a forum when there are *hundreds* of free or shareware alternatives available. Like you dont need Soundforge to trim a WAV and you dont need 3D Studio Max to make a Quake skin
GIMP is great, a smaller *legal* download than Photoshop and almost as capable, unless you are loking to use photoshop *professionally* in which case you really should be buying your own licence if you are profiting from the use of the software.
The side effect of using high quality but *free* alternatives to software is that the professional software then has to follow suit as it loses customers and either massivel improve its software (a good thing) or turn to a similar pricing model as its competition (also a good thing).
Its also a well known fact that the fact that warez are so easily available on the internet gives the companies makign software of all kinds enough justification to raise the price to compensate - so dont go talking about it being management and bosses losing money; its the people who actually *pay* for the software who get scalped because they are subsidising pricks like you
Those of you who don't remember such things here is a little story:
Once upon a time there was an internet browser called Netscape, and it was shareware. Then another company came along and wanted to knock Netscapes number one position in the browser market away by giving theirs away *free*; and this browser was called Internet Explorer. Call it a hunch, Id say everyone not reading this in Opera is reading it in IE.
Thats how things work. Companies get successful becuase people buy their stuff or they are reputable. If a lot of people are actively using a free program, it gets more feedback, more development and more popularity - who would buy an MP3 player post-WinAMP?
If a free version of a program is better than any commercial one, there *has* to be either massive improvements in the program or a change to a different pricing model, namely free for inidvidual use or commercially for professional use, which I presume is something you would be happier with than with having to (god forbid) pay for software you use frequently
Token99 wrote:
Why? Because he doesn't share the same views as you? Have you ever downloaded an mp3? Have you ever recorded a song off the radio? Have you ever recorded a movie off of TV or one that you've rented?
A different argument but:
downloaded an MP3 - yeah, all MP3s are illegal, all ROMs are illegal, we're all warezers, I cant beleive the RIAA are allowing
http://www.mp3.com to still operate
recorded a song off the radio - no, but presumably if its aired a lot its to get you interested in the band and eventually buy the album as singles and concerts both do. Id assume its no different to the legal MP3s you can get from sites such as Amazon.com as a taster of the album.
Movie off TV - is paid for by the commercials that fill it
One I've rented - no, I don't have the mind frame that anything I have paid anything for for any amount of time is automatically mine forever.
I dont go to the library and scan all the books I take out either.
Token99 wrote:
Copying your friends CD, recording TV shows, recording rentals, downloading mp3s, downloading pirated software are all the exact same thing
No, theyre not...
I hope everyone who goes on about how they're somehow *
entitled* to have whatever they want whenever they want it at no cost to themselves gets a job and gets ripped off by someone.
Then again I guess you cant understand what it feels like to see stuff you've worked hard on being ripped off by someone else to make a quick buck
...and if you feel flamed by the above, don't go assuming that everybody automatically has as little integrity as you do. A lot of people pay full prices for things because thats what the people who made the product are charging, and they are *entitled* to charge what they want for what they have made. and those people get *really* annoyed when someone with no ethics but broadband starts boasting about their warez collections not costing anyoen anything
). There was a short point in my life where I did download pirated software, but I don't anymore for mostly the reasons you are not supposed to do d/l warez. (I had like 3 things: Office, MSVS, and Photoshop 5.5). And recording TV shows is perfectly legal.
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double post... see below
