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Poll: Are you a software pirate?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#81

Post by nailer »

clistctrl wrote: post #25

When I was a kid, yes, today not at all. As a 14 year old there's no way I could afford Adobe Photoshop, or Visual Studio 6 (or be able to justify the reduced cost versions for a student to my parents). So I downloaded them, and learned to use the software, and how to program C++, and learned the MFC libraries. As an adult I have paid for the full versions, and upgrade versions at least twice for each product. I'm th…

Same here. I manage to do my job fine without anything costing more than 140 bucks - a professional Windows SSH client that support MS CryptoAPI for my day job and VMware Workstation / Fusion are about the most expensive things I've purchased. I avoid Photoshop by using Pixelmator, which I've purchased, and exporting to PSD.

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#82

Post by nailer »

reynolds wrote: post #4

I really only use free software. Outside of software development I don't really have any other software on my laptops. I have purchased tools and never pirate them. Is pirating more of a Windows user's thing?

Perhaps, but when I was a kid I used Linux and pirated Loki games, Transgaming, proprietary OSS drivers, VMware, and other bits and pieces. I'm clean now :^)

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#83

Post by bemmu »

roam wrote: post #61
weaksauce wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know they give you a version of xp and vista for testing ie right? It's a virtual machine image preloaded but time limited. http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=21E...

Last time I checked there was no way of getting those images working outside of Virtual PC.

Are people seriously supposed to download a new image every N months and go through a conversion process each time to get it to run on VMWare.

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#85

Post by xiaoma »

theonetruebob wrote: post #71
oldgregg wrote: post #51

This poll is rubbish. "Are you a software pirate?" -- completely loaded question. You're not asking people if they use copyrighted software-- you're asking people to label themselves a PIRATE. Maybe I'll submit a poll about abortion "Are you a baby murderer?" Maybe you should rewrite the poll "Do you believe in a free culture unencumbered by copyright laws that are specifically written to protect corporate interests?…

I think that reasoning would be more apt if the question were phrased, "Do you _steal_ software?" or, "Are you a software thief."

No ships are being boarded. No raping, pillaging or murdering is occurring. The fact that people are calling illegal sharing "piracy" speaks volumes about the RIAA, MPAA and BSA's marketing efforts over the past few decades.

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#86

Post by DLWormwood »

rmc wrote: post #48
sprout wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually voted both yes and no, since I do pirate software, but only software I own. I don't consider it piracy, because it doesn't impact anyone's ability to make a living off of it (it usually just saves support costs) but the law sees it differently. Also I did pirate a game from the early 90's because I couldn't figure out where to send a check. http://downloadgameonline.blogspot.com/2008/08/enchantasy-qu... Ac…

"Pirate your own software"? I don't think that would count as piracy. If you own the copyright on it, or own the company that owns the copyright, or run the company that owns the copyright, then surely you can copy it as many times as you want. How could it be possible to view any copying of that as 'piracy'.

One example I’d make is getting dongle-free or CD-free copies of software. This is especially handy for laptop users to get a cracked copy so they wouldn’t risk losing something and getting left high and dry while traveling. This is considered illegal in some jurisdictions. (The DMCA here in the States is somewhat vague, since there’s an accessibility exemption, but it’s never been tested in court for this use case, AFAIK.)

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#87

Post by mirkules »

mcantor wrote: post #35
clistctrl wrote: post #25

When I was a kid, yes, today not at all. As a 14 year old there's no way I could afford Adobe Photoshop, or Visual Studio 6 (or be able to justify the reduced cost versions for a student to my parents). So I downloaded them, and learned to use the software, and how to program C++, and learned the MFC libraries. As an adult I have paid for the full versions, and upgrade versions at least twice for each product. I'm th…

I pirated Photoshop for years as a teenager, until I was good enough with it to get paid as a freelancer. With my first check from a freelance gig, I bought a licensed copy. In this sense, Photoshop paid for itself, but it could not have happened without piracy. These days it may be doable without piracy, since academic versions are more widely available and distributed to schools.

Most academic licenses specifically prohibit commercial use (example: Visual Studio), so using academic versions to make money is not legal either

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#88

Post by mirkules »

sliverstorm wrote: post #42
sophacles wrote: post #2

Honestly, with the exception of a few things work pays for (and I don't need outside of work -- looking at you outlook calendar), I have no need for any software that isn't (legally) freely available. If I owned a mac myself, I would consider buying a copy of omnigraffle, but, again, I don't ever have use cases for it outside of work... In fact, when I have bought software in the past, I have ended up pretty disappoi…

It is true, there is a lot of throwaway software out there. Things are complicated even more when the free stuff is better than the paid stuff (Imgburn anyone?) Just about the only miscellaneous 3rd party software I have paid for in recent memory was mIRC, because no other IRC client for Windows ever satisfied me and I found a discount worth $10. Essentially, there is no little 'killer app' I have found that just mag…

You are right about Photoshop, but I would argue that Octave is an acceptable, free, and Matlab-compatible substitute for Matlab. I did my entire Masters degree in Octave -- it was good enough for me. (The one thing I know Matlab supports that Octave doesn't is a Matlab-to-C compiler)

Re: Poll: Are you a software pirate?

#90

Post by rwhitman »

maxharris wrote: post #80

For all of you that answered "Yes", please don't pirate software. When you create anything, no one has a proper right to it except on your terms. Without you, that thing you've created would not exist. You should be concerned about proper rights because your life, along with everyone else's, depends on individual rights (this has always been true, but it should be quite obvious to us because our technologically advan…

I'm sorry but your argument that someone who buys legitimate software will produce better work is just ridiculous.

Mastery comes from practice, not sheer will - someone who has to work all summer to acquire Illustrator is going to be far less skilled than someone who spent the entire summer learning Illustrator on a pirated copy.

Almost every talented designer I know acquired their skills this way. I went to an art school and you could literally see the difference in skill level between students who had pirated & mastered software vs students that waited until college to get the educational license.

I ran circles around those people and ended up making money tutoring them. I got a head start on my career by freelancing during college because I learned the software before I attended school. I took jobs away from those people and left them in the dirt because of instead of waiting & saving for the upgrades I could master new features as they were released.

I honestly attribute most of my success in life to pirating software as a student.

Oh and the best artists routinely steal each other's work and have their work stolen. They just call it "inspiration".

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