What's your opinion about Macwarez?!

**AppleWatcher** · February 9th, 2002, 03:21 PM

What do you think about Macwarez?

AppleWatcher

**AdmiralAK** · February 9th, 2002, 03:26 PM

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

This topic hasnt been brought up in ages

Is that why you brought it up ?

Admiral

**sithious** · February 9th, 2002, 03:31 PM

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

**AdmiralAK** · February 9th, 2002, 03:42 PM

sithious you really should see a doctor about that

**ulrik** · February 9th, 2002, 05:06 PM

double-wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

**serpicolugnut** · February 9th, 2002, 05:30 PM

Well, first off all - it's illegal...

That said, I've been known to scour Carracho and download stuff from time to time.

BUT -

If I download something that I find useful, I buy it. In the last year, I've probably paid more for software than I did for hardware (look at tagline, it's quite a bit). Software developers deserve to be paid for their efforts. It's as simple as that. Pirating software hurts everybody responsible for producing the product, and in the end, usually results in the product disappearing.

I'm happy to see Adobe adopting the

30 day trial download that Macromedia has employed. It really is the best way for developers to get their products in peoples hands legally, and usually results in people actually buying the product.

As for using beta software (like Adobe's Photoshop and GoLive), I'm in a bit of quandry. I grabbed PS7 when I first saw it up on Carracho, and have been using it DAILY for the last two months. This is obviously in violation of Adobe's NDA (which I never signed). Personally, I don't care. I've stated publicly for the last year that I would have paid for the privlege to use a beta of Photoshop 7. It's my main tool, and without it, I was held back to using OS 9.

That said, I own PS6, and the minute PS7 is available for preorder, my order will be placed. Same goes for Flash and Dreamweaver.

Both Adobe and Macromedia have got my money - they just need to produce the products.

**ulrik** · February 9th, 2002, 05:49 PM

Well, I am running pirated software. I am running PS 7 sometimes, but I own a PS 6 license and I can't use PS 7 to it's full extent anyway since it doesn't support the preasure feature of my wacom tablet yet. I will buy it as soon as it is available.

I am running some expensive 3D software because I love to play with it. It's not OK, I know, but I do it. The only 3D software I use for business anyway (since it's the only one I know good enough to be productive in it) is Cinema4D, for which I have a license.

I think everybody in the business sometimes uses warez, what I don't like are people who get angry because their PIRATED beta version does no longer work etc. etc.

My philosophie - as a programmer anyway - is, that if any application is good enough so that I use it for business, I will buy it. If it is good enough that I think the programmer or the company deserves the money, I will buy it.
If it is not good, I won't buy it and won't use it.

I have no problem with using a warez version for "evaluation" and if I need it, I'll buy it. I know this is what everybody says, but I am sticking to that philosophy.

**fryke** · February 9th, 2002, 05:57 PM

Let's repeat the (in)famous Kai Krause story. Standing before a crowd at a Macintosh event, he asked the people how many of them were using PowerGOO (a then famous lil software). Almost all hands were up. Then he asked how many had actually bought the software. The crowd laughed and many hands went down. Smiling Kai Krause said, that he thought this was fine with him. He loved that his software was so popular, he was glad that he sold enough copies of it and said: "However, if you actually *use* the software and don't just play with it for a while, even more so if you even make *money* with the creative software you are using: Please pay the developers."

So I'm a graphics designer, and I think I'm in the group Kai Krause directed that speech to. And I think he's right. Adobe is a very profitable company. And the best reason why I started paying for Adobe's software is that I pirated it when I was a teen. I was using Photoshop at that time merely for my own desktop pictures. Of *COURSE* a fifteen year old kid like I was at the time doesn't spend hundreds of dollars (or in my case Swiss Francs) for a software he uses for desktop pictures. But he learns the software while at it. He learns to appreciate the feature set and the development. He chooses a profession where he can use the knowledge he learned easily by playing around with the tool (at least I did). And finally, when making money with the tools he once pirated, he actually starts buying the software and upgrades.

This is how Adobe, Macromedia and even (gasp!) Microsoft make their money.

I think the state as it is, is perfect. Developers try to track down pirating and preventing it by inventing new copy protection schemes. Teens try to prevent being tracked down and cracking copy protection. And at the end of the day everyone's quite happy because everyone is having fun and makes a profit. Which means: Teens should *not* stop to pirate, but should start to pay when they start to earn money with the software. Companies should *not* stop tracking down software piracy but should mainly go for companies and people who actually *sell* pirated copies of wanted software titles, which I think is where piracy is *really* bad and *really* harming developers' profits.

Now that I explained it all, can we please close the topic? Btw. I need more serials for Marathon Infinity, we want to do nostalgic carnage-parties.