Poll: Are you a software pirate?

I did-- until I discovered Steam.

I'm living on the road right now off of a laptop, so I don't carry much physical media with me. If I wipe my hardcore and do a clean install, I download all the software kit that I use - most of which I've owned physical copies of at various points. I have pirated some crazy high-end software occasionally to play with. (Hmm, I hope I didn't just admit to committing grand theft copyright)

I used to buy my games, after buying one copy I'd download it if I wanted it again, I just didn't like having physical media around. I'm off video games probably for the rest of my life so I haven't tried Steam, but it looks like a good solution for gamers. I know I bought Baldur's Gate once or twice, and then re-downloaded it from Napster or Kazaa or whatever a couple more times. I must've bought three or four copies of Final Fantasy VIII for the Playstation and later Playstation 2 after moving, lending them out and not getting them back, or whatever. Great game if you delve into it, the mechanics system on it is very enjoyable if you decide to play it a deeper level, probably the most enjoyable Final Fantasy for me, though Final Fantasy X was the last one I played, that was kind of the swan song for video games for me.

Who knows, if I have a massive exit or reach some vast milestones, maybe I'll take a one month vacation where I catch up with a decade or two of video games and play the new Grand Theft Autos, Oblivion, Mass Effect, things like that. I wind up hearing about all that stuff secondhand and it does look pretty enjoyable. I'll probably play team-based shooters and strategy games with my future kids later, I'm actually quite excited about the idea of doing that.

There should be a third category for "improperly licensed" software offenders. I find that uses of personal software for commercial purposes is quite common. So not quite piracy but still not 100% legit.

I believe they prefer to be called Swashbuckling Americans.

I think culture does play a part, and reasonable pricing. It's easy for someone to justify pirating windows, especially if it's not their main operating system compared with OSX which is at a price point that no one but a broke teenager would really consider pirating it.