Cracked Software - Feeling guilty?

I don't know why, but as I get older I start to see the software business in a different way.
When I was younger, I used to download everything from the P2P networks and brag myself with my buddies (this was long ago though, lol). Used to give away pirated stuff to the friends/ family..
As of now, I find myself downloading only freeware apps as well as free distributed music.
I no longer want to download illegal/ copyrighted material and I begin to feel guilty for using something I didn't buy.
I'm seriously thinking about uninstalling the cracked ver. of adobe PSCS4 I got and buy a used copy of CS3 from ebay.

Has this ever happened to you? Share your thoughts!

 

Mwhahaha. I was obsessed with being an entirely open-source boy when I was younger. I didn't use anything I did not have the "legal rights" for. And I deleted all my "pirated" ROMs and games. If I think about it, I was almost insane. You do not gain anything doing so... and pirating you really do not deprive anyone of his money. The only people who might lose are the big evil corporations who do not care about their workers at all, but only about their shareholders and bottom line. When they lose. Most times they do not: pirating one of their products gets you hooked up and makes you want to buy one of their products because you really like. This is what is happening to you. Happened for me for a few GBA games, actually. It is obvious that if you think about living off software for which tech support is not important at all, you gradually will get the same mindset of the corporations which do so.
Do I think there are software producers that DESERVE to be paid for their quality products? Definedly. Do I think copyright is right? No. I will eventually buy it in some form from them if it's really good for me to show my support. The one who you treat well, is the one you will get back every time he needs something you have/make.

Is it worth to pay $50-$60 for a new game, when you do not even know if you love it? Totally not. And reviewers, unless the products are total shit, are always bribed in some form so you really cannot trust them.

In the end it comes to this. Money must be deserved.

 

I normally wait a couple of months before I get a "new" game because you can say a tremendous amount of money if you do.

I don't have any illegal roms on any of my systems, but I have done in the past was download a game, try it out, if I like it, I go out and buy it, then delete the rom.

I've just gotten a PS2 Slim from a buddy of mine for free, and I just got a Playstation 1 Debugger System. The PS2 Slim has a plethora of easy to do mods to play backups and the Playstation 1 Debugger is even easier, just find an ISO.

That being said, I've been searching eBay and using JBidWatcher like crazy to get some amazing deals on some great games.

That said when I was a teenager I did stuff like that all the time, I didn't care, now its different. Also I think for me personally I have kids, and I don't want them doing what I did.

I consider getting a Playstation 2 with a Hard Drive to complete hack and mod and then I realized there is absolutely no reason for me to do so, not unless I planned on starting to do some development for it, then I would do it but just so I could run my own code . . .

-Disjaukifa

 

Game-wise, at some point I just lost interest in playing everything on release day. Now, I just buy stuff used instead, which is cheap enough not to have to pirate anything. As long as it is available, that is - I have no second thoughts about pirating games that, for example, haven't been released in my region. (I mostly still buy the good ones though if I get the change to do so later on, even if it's just for the collection.)

Applications, well... Since I switched to Linux (and other *NIX) some years ago, I couldn't help but keep noticing how many of the commercial apps are hacked-together crap that works just well enough to be sold, but no better - I really don't miss those. Right now there's only three Windows apps left which I still use (due to not having found any decent free replacements), one of which is Photoshop. FLOSS is not automagically better, and while PS might not be worth the retail price to me, it's definitely worth the few dozen bucks you have to pay for an older license on eBay (I've been sticking with PS6 since later versions haven't added anything that's useful to me, just bloat).

On another note, going legal has actually freed up much of my time: Before, people kept bugging me to fix their (or their friends', relatives', relatives' friends', etc etc) PCs. Now that I ask them for their Windows license before doing anything, there's a lot less of that. :thumbsup:

 

I will say that if you pirate stuff it also cheapens you appreciation of it. Afterall if you get games basically for free, you may play a ton of them and not really appreciate the good ones and spend time playing really bad ones or just average ones solely because it was free. I have friends that modded their Xbox 360s and seemed to pirate almost every game that came out. I would always see them online playing some new game. I never understood it. I knew they had alot more time to play games than I did, but this showed just how big the gap was. But for example they would get something like Battlefield 2 and be playing that online perhaps even before it came out. I wouldn't know whether or not I should even bother getting the game to play with them as they might be done with it and moving on before I even get it or have it for a couple days.

So you can see that when you pirate things it really does cheapen it and you are possibly punishing yourself without knowing it. As far as feeling guilt, I don't see the point. The people that would feel guilt, don't do it or stop. People that never feel the guilt will do it for all time or until something happens that changes their mind to think they are doing something wrong.

Just as a practical matter I think if you pirate software, like downloading a game, you should try it out and if you think it'll be worth it, buy it. If not, delete it. If it's not worth your money then it's probably not worth your time.

 

I feel exactly the same way. I dislike pirated software and don't play copied games or use cracked software. When I "tried" playing copied games once, it didn't feel any good and I couldn't even motivate myself to play it at all. It's all different with actual games I bought. I really enjoy them.

And yup, I even bought the Adobe Creative Suite which nobody else I know did...

 

I stopped using cracked software as free alternatives started becoming more available (<3 Paint.NET), I stopped playing PC games (and if I wanted to I have a 360), my computer usage changed (I don't delude myself into thinking I'll actually use 3D modeling tools any time soon), and my computers started becoming underpowered even for Office.

Oh and I changed morally too as upon entering the real world I've realized that having your work ripped off means someone is messing with your livelihood, particularly if they deter other people from buying your software or even worse in fact profit from it.

I think before too long there'll be free web application replacements for pretty much everything, and I will totally embrace it for productivity software. Times are a changin'.

 

Normally i download pirated PC games (unless there is a demo) in order to gauge performance on my computer rather than relying on written specs or these websites which scan your PC and then i'll go out an buy the game if it runs well.

As for software 99% of the tasks i do on my computer are easily handled with 100% free programs or in some cases the free versions of paid programs. Also there are some programs which are hard to judge how well they work from limited trials i.e. video conversion software so i tend to pirate them in order to test before i decide on whether they do what i want because there is no point me spending money on something that doesn't do what i need it to or not being able to get a food indication in trial versions.

 

Here in Uruguay original software is highly overpriced and hard to find in most of the cases. Most people find hard to pay over 400 dollars (plus 100-150 dollars for a screen) for a low profile dual-core desktop PC that can barely handle current-gen games, they won't buy original games in the few places that sell a small amount of titles for absurd prices.

There's also the idea of "why should I buy software when I can get it for free?", which makes that the only places that buy software are places which are fined for having pirated software (like shops, development studios and public offices, for example). Because of this, many software companies aren't even interested in selling stuff here which makes it hard to get legally, increasing piracy even more.

I'm not a fan of cracked software (I personally would hate to see people cracking something I worked hard to do), but for work reasons I have to use programs that I cannot afford for the moment, but I try to find open-source or free alternatives always I can. I'd love to be able to buy original games, but it's not an option for the moment.

 

Can't you just buy from steam? digital download at the price everybody else is paying

 

I started embracing free/open source software alternatives too. Mainly for the following reasons:

1. No need to worry about it being made obsolete.
2. You can modify it to suit your needs if you can program.
3. No need to worry about finding the latest versions which are successfully hacked/cracked.
4. Open software works across more platforms and gives more options. Ie. If you want to write a tool/plugin which works with it your able to.
5. Free as in beer.

 

There're some games I'd like to get legally, but I have some more important things in the list for the moment, like some programs I use for work and I need to buy as soon as I get the money to avoid troubles...

 

I don't use any cracked software that I can think of, I'll admit to downloading a couple of PC games when I was younger, but that just kinda cheapened playing them for some reason. Since I've bought plenty of new games before and after that, I'll give myself a pass on that :shrug:

One of the worst thing the Internet has created is a generation of whiny bitches who want everything for free. It really annoys me when people aren't willing to pay even a few dollars for something good: for example, when they can spend a lot of cash on an Android phone but can't spend a couple of bucks on a useful app.

 

I make an effort to purchase my software legitimately, but sometimes it's not always possible either due to my financial situation or just the plain ridiculous cost of the applications.

There's not a great deal of games/apps that I've used loads and not paid for.

 

lol, what a funny thread. So where are the funny guys which stand still and say:
"Yes sir, i do pirate!"

 

I download many Dreamcast games these days, but back in 2000/2001 I wouldnt have touched them.

Irrelevant now, as I live in the past!

I have a cart for my DS, but that's the only reason I don't sell the damn thing. My PSP is hacked, but I only ever play MegaDrive games on it anyway.

 

I hacked my PSP I owned, since sold it, but only so I could download my games to a memory stick to get rid of the horrible load times. I don't consider that pirating since I owned the title, I just put it on a different media!

-Disjaukifa

 

Personally these days I've found free software to usually be superior to the paid stuff. ImgBurn>almost everything paid.

As for gaming I found it cheapened everything when I could just pirate anything I wanted and switched back to buying games when they were on really good sales and I had the spare cash.

 

This.

In my case I usually get pirated software, but try to get original games for my consoles. I actually don't own any hacked console (excepting my GBA which was a gift, so it was already hacked when I got it).

I do have a few emulators for old nintendo consoles in my computer; but I rarely play the games.


Also I have a feeling that being Microsoft the huge corporation it is today, and having forced a huge number of PC users to install their software I feel no regrets when it comes to get a pirated copy for Office or even Windows.

 

I feel like this thread has a lot of people trying to sound better than they actually are regarding this topic. (not to be mean)

I will be an honest man, I download many PC games to see if they will even run on my PC, because I have had a couple of times where I came home with a $50 game only to find out it crashes or wont even load on my PC, then I spend hours searching and applying patches which change nothing. That bothers me, so I download them instead to see if its even worth my money.

I know a ton of you have full rom sets for various systems as well but I doubt anyone will be proud to admit that. I mean, come on, we are all gamers and we all know of emulators and how they have save-states, fast forward, frame by frame, netplay, enhanced graphics and many other features, how could we not be interested?

And as for plain PC software, I can see why a lot of people pirate certain applications due to their insane prices, but as everyone else has said there are many free alternatives now that as the future progresses I assume pirating software will decrease as more of these free applications become available.