I have a personal dilemma right now. I purchased Adobe Web Premium CS3 (Student Edition) for my Windows PC almost 2 years ago — and I love it. I feel very good about paying for it, rather than have pirated it by downloading it. But, I just bought a MacBook Pro. I obviously cannot install CS3 on my Mac because I have a Windows copy, but I reeaally want it on my Mac without having to boot into my Bootcamp Windows partition or use VM to run it. As far as I know, my CS3 license states that I can install it on as many computers that I want (of which I own), and only use one copy at a time. If not, I believe it’s up to three computers, I can’t remember.

This really frustrates me because, should I really have to purchase another entire copy of CS3/CS4 just so I can use it on my Mac? I certainly don’t think so, especially since I’ve installed CS3 on 2 out of 3 computers, if there is a limit.

My first inclination is to seek it out online and download a Mac copy — only justifying my download based on my license. I feel like I have/should have the right to interchangeably use my software (like Adobe’s) on either my Mac or PC if I already own it, that is if there are two separate versions. I mean, I already own it, why buy TWO copies for ONE person when you would only need one with 2 Windows PCs, rather than having a Mac.

This leads me to think that the way software licensing should work is through hybrid licenses. I’ll give you an example: Do you need multiple fishing licenses for each fishing pole you own and use (you, personally)? I thought not. Each fishing pole is a computer, in this case. You can use as many poles as you want to fish with, as long as you have one fishing license, correct?

Why not have hybrid licenses for all operating systems (if the company supports each OS)? Or perhaps category licenses where you “own” each category of software of your choosing. Why should you have to pay separately for IconPackager on Windows and CandyBar on Mac? That’s almost double the cost for software, which is pretty ridiculous.

And to Adobe: Why can’t you offer student upgrade discounts? It costs more for a commercial upgrade of CS4 than for the full student edition of CS4, yet to buy the full install of CS4 to upgrade from CS3 would be outrageous… it all doesn’t make much sense.

I understand your point, but all your giving me is how piracy has grown. All it shows me is less, or at least no further action is being done to stop it.

I also understand how millions, if not billions of people download pirated content every day, and it would be impossible to stop every one of them.

The truth is this: the action itself is against INTERNATIONAL copyright law. Any respectable person would abide and respect a fair and just law as such.

I n response to To h’s comment: “it’s not a matter of punishing, but an opportunity to change the structure of cultural exchange to make things more equitable.”

In other words, piracy is equitable – or FAIR – because it’s an opportunity to change the structure of cultural exchange.

Wrong – that’s what open source is. There are free open source alternatives to nearly ANY piece of software.

That statement is also wrong simply because of this: it is wrong to steal the fruit of someone’s labor. Developing software, recording music, and making movies takes months, if not YEARS of work and can cost thousands, even MILLIONS of dollars to complete one project. Is it right to just steal from hard working people just because no one wants to sacrifice for what they want?

Isn’t that a basic rule we ALL learn growing up – you sacrifice to get something. You sacrifice your time to complete school, you sacrifice your time and money to complete college, you sacrifice your hard earned money to pay your electric bill so you can have lights at night time.

You work hard for your possessions – you sacrifice. Software developers, musicians, and movie makers have sacrificed a LOT of time and energy into making their product…to take away from that is disgusting.

It’s ridiculous to me to see how many people are willing to justify this thievery with nothing but “I want I want I want!” Are people really that childish and greedy and lazy?

If you want something – sacrifice for it, otherwise back off.

Yes, free is always lovely, but if you want free – open source is the way to go, but be sure you support the developers by donating. They bend over backwards to give a quality product, and it’s sad when no one contributes.

Simply put – if people weren’t GREEDY and LAZY and got JOBS and SAVED UP for what they wanted, the demand would be so high up, companies like Adobe could afford to lower their prices.

But when you look at alllll the people who buy their software as apposed to those who download pirated copies…it’s night and day.

People may not be able to permanently STOP piracy, but it CAN be decreased over time.

This is my honest opinion, and I think it’s fair. It is simply wrong to take away from those who work hard to make a quality product for the consumer.

Build yourself a house by hand and have someone knock it down…not very nice ;)

My 2 more cents…I believe I now have 6 cents? =D

if there’s the opportunity to get all these benefits for free, then opportunists will thrive. and while it is morally “wrong”, it’s also natural.

instead of protecting the information so that only the few who can afford it are to use it, we need to protect developers in a different way. instead of using my tax dollars to bomb people, i’m willing to have some of that money go to the talented people that make my life better so that they can geek out at their leisure for the betterment of humanity.

these apps for work and pleasure should belong to all. information should be democratic. also, creators should be not “protected” from “evil pirates” (who really love and admire the developer’s work, they’re not against each other) but instead should be celebrated and allowed to blossom with financial support from a different source, like donations, patronage, or even grants like we used to have for the fine arts in more civilized times.

i really admire the ideals behind donationware and open source because they respect the ideals that everyone have a fair chance to use the tools that exist while also trusting that people will in turn support them.

until we realize that the arts and information and knowledge and advancement should belong to the entire human race we will be stuck in this cat and mouse chase pointing fingers and being hostile to each other.

depending on the capitalist system to control the flow of knowledge and tools is not only wrong in a deeper way that “piracy”, but it upholds the digital divide and ultimately promotes a cultural elitism that is unfair. think of this. how many kick ass nigerian 17 year old graphic designers are going to afford a copy of adobe master suite?

chris, i commend you for your solidarity with developers. but i also ask you to remember that these “pirates” you’re talking about are your peers and generally good people. it’s not a matter of punishing, but an opportunity to change the structure of cultural exchange to make things more equitable.

best,

thomas

The BECAUSE statements are not valid arguments but the dim witted excuse of common petty theives, bogus on every plausible level and as completely irrational as my own duubious speling.

No one forces you to watch a movie or play a video game. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. My God. You pirating morons act like you’re some starving orphan grabbing a loaf of bread from a store window to save the life of his ailing grandmother. Trust me. You can live without the newest edition of War Craft (yeah, I’m talking to you, Freakboy and a Half). So don’t act like you”re being forced at the point of a gun to either pay high prices or steal. Please put down the anime DVD and bottle of lotion and pick up an Ecomomics 101 book. Services take the same investment, capital, and labor as hard goods do, so pirating is no different than stealing anything else. I wish you were REAL pirates so I could body slam you off the plank into shark infested water. How to stop pirating? Pretty much impossible. How to reduce it? With the stick. Companies should flood every file sharing site with maliscious, kick-ass viruses so that people are afraid to steal for fear of their computer being ruined like their face and their mom already is. Bye now. I love you all. But really I hate you.

The community is far too large and enthusiastic to let 2 internet bloggers take it down.

The Malaysian government got Brokenstones pulled.
2 days later Vortex goes up.
1 week later Savethecoratee goes up.
1 week after that Brokenstones goes back up.

So we now have 3 incredibly well run Mac bittorrent trackers – as a result of just one getting pulled.

*PS – Chris, do you really think Apple care?
Why do you think they took away donglr protection from Logic Studio?
It increases the user base. It helps create the brand. Apple can afford piracy – they make their money from harware.

I do not support randomly pirating software for no reason, (tho i do like osx86…) and i in no way at all support keygens. my only “pirated” software is usually borrowed stuff from friends and things like that.

BUZZ!!! It is illegal for the ISP’s to watch what comes in/out of the citizen computer in the US without a warrant.

This is just like stopping “Terrorism”. You can’t “stop” or “wipe out” a mentality. This is a heavily discussed topic, and you’ve seen the somewhat poor implementations to prevent piracy, that have up and failed altogether.

I notice couple of weeks ago a local mall here did a sale on original DVD they were able to sell it at 70% less than the original price and people buys the original DVD instead of buying the pirated ones, i just think if piracy is to stop the companies have to stop ripping people off.

http://tinyurl.com/6owuce

I do not think it is, or ever will be possible to stop piracy because it is theft at its most basic form, and theft has been around since time began. However that should not deter the struggle to reduce it by any means. The problem right now I think is a solid way to enforce the laws because of the ease that piracy can be conducted. It is much easier to do the crime than enforce it in this case. I hope the tables turn on that sometime in the near future.

Seriously, most of the stuff people pirate are things they don’t even really need.

Photoshop is probably the most pirated software ever. “But it costs too much…. Waaaah!” Like someone else said, it’s meant for professional use, and most people don’t even use it to a quarter of its extent.

Ever heard of GIMP? I find it much more preferable than Photoshop myself. Those used to Photoshop’s layout can even get the version who mimics its layout. And it’s totally free!!!!! Reason to pirate Photoshop: none.

And for the things that have no legally free alternatives, it’s called “saving” people. Ever heard of it? If you can’t do that, or you want it right now, too bad for you. Software isn’t required for one to live like food, so quit treating it like it is. You don’t need it, you just want it. All I get to eat is microwaved stuff, so don’t think I’m some rich person either.

Programmers work hard to make these programs, and they wouldn’t be so expensive if it was a simple thing, or if people didn’t pirate so much. So quit playing like you’re “sticking it to the man,” because you’re not. You’re just a thief, and one who can’t do the stealing themself if you get it off some site or shareware. And that hacker that cracked it for you probably loaded it with spyware, trojans, and viruses. So have fun with that.

The best policy for reducing piracy is for the software manufacturers to try and keep the cost of their software as low as possible. Sometimes keeping software simple and functional is ideal.

Many times when I buy software I am buying it to do something specific. I don’t care if it does my laundry and has voice recognition as well :P.

Microsoft has fed the mentality that software companies have by continuing to increase the prices of it’s OS’s and it’s Office Suites.

Most people just want a word processor that is compatible with what everyone uses, and when OpenOffice offers an Office Suite for free, it is rediculous to pay over $300 for a full version of Microsoft Office.