Poll: pirated software and you

[PARANOiA]

In a first year IT lecture, once, the lecturer asked "How many of you here have ever used a pirated piece of software?" Out of the thousand or so students in the lecture hall, it was pretty much 99% of hands in the air (including the lecturer!)

How many of you have only legal (ie purchased or freeware) software in use right now on your PC? How many have never used pirated software ever?

Just interested in a show of hands, not really after a debate.

Thanks.

Edit: I used "never" instead of "ever" in the question heh :]

 

[digitalwanderer]

No comment.

 

[Moloch]

I chose option one.
I don't remember the last piece of software I actually bought or someone got me.
I have 2 big cd binders full of cds/dvd-rs and a couplle small ones and a bunch of cd spools I use as holders.
Mostly movies though.

 

[BRiT]

There's a good portion of software I have purchased where I haven't found a suitable free-as-in-beer software suite [NewsBin Pro, AnaPod Explorer, Nod32, TurboTax]. But most of my software is opensource/freeware/contribute-ware: Java, Eclipse, FireFox, K!TV, Konfabulator, VLC, DVArchive, WinAmp, Mpeg4 Modifier, QuickTime Alternative, MediaPlayer Classic, Azureus, SpyBot S&D. The other software I use was typically bundled with hardware such as Nero, WinXP. And then there's the games purchased for the PC or XBox.

 

[ANova]

The only software I buy is that which I really like and/or use often.

Anyone that buys all the software they use either has very little installed or is rich.

 

[DudeMiester]

I buy software I like, and as a result all the software I actually use with some frequency is ligit.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I bought WindowsXP ..... I'm serious .... seriously ..... the guy in the store looked shocked when I asked to buy it.

 

[Ken2012]

Do 'cracked' .exe's count as pirated software? If so, then I've used them in the past when I borrow a game from my friends. But otherwise, all of my software is either bought or freeware.

 

[Deathlike2]

I find myself trying to find a free alternative to the same commericial software... this is fine 90% of the time... though I feel much better spending money on games when they are on the cheap (most other software never comes down in price)...

 

[see colon]

when i was younger i had tons of stuff (games mostly. wolf3d ect), but i've grown out of that completely now. although, i was at a lan party a few weeks ago and .iso's of quake4 were being tossed around the network and eventualy ended up on my hard drive. but i couldn't bring myself to install it. i own quake4 now, but still haven't installed it.

 

[Intel17]

I used to pirate games in previous years, but all the games that I pirtated I eventually bought, and I don't pirate nowadays.

 

[PARANOiA]

Do 'cracked' .exe's count as pirated software? If so, then I've used them in the past when I borrow a game from my friends. But otherwise, all of my software is either bought or freeware.

You can't "borrow" games legally, I believe. What you actually pay for is the licence to use the software, not the data itself. Cracked .exe's only count as "non-pirate" if you own the game/app IMO.

 

[Diplo]

Do 'cracked' .exe's count as pirated software?

Only in the same way that shooting strangers in the head with a handgun counts as murder.

 

[epicstruggle]

I read a /. post where the guy recalls going to his friends house. Where the friend had a case of pirated dreamcast games. The friend lamented that dreamcast was an awesome system and didnt know why it had failed. /roll

epic

 

[Graham]

now I'm working I own everything I have installed. wasn't so in the past naturally, although a good 70% of what I did used to use was legal.

 

[Entropy]

I own all the games I have installed on my PC. (That said, a couple of them lie there in CD-cracked version so that I can get around annoying CD checks. Pirated software offer a better user experience than retail bought. Irritating.)

An interesting follow up question would have been:
"Would you have bought the software, if you hadn't been able use a pirated version?"

 

[thehulk]

Yes, I have some installed right now...

 

[Farid]

I bought WindowsXP ..... I'm serious .... seriously ..... the guy in the store looked shocked when I asked to buy it.

Happened to me quite a few times over the years!

When I say I want the OS installed the OEM guy usually says "What?".

 

[PenguinJim]

now I'm working I own everything I have installed. wasn't so in the past naturally, although a good 70% of what I did used to use was legal.

Hey! Me too!

Actually, I'm about two/three games behind - but I'm playing catch-up at the moment, to buy everything I at all liked. I couldn't afford them all before (I bought as many as I could), so the situation would have been me with very few games, and the companies with very little money. By pirating, I had the games, but the companies still had no money - but I'd turned a lose/lose situation into a win/lose situation (with no increase in the companies' loss, as copying software doesn't then make someone else miss out on it. Steal a loaf of bread, and you've stopped someone else from being able to eat it - but 0s and 1s can simply be copied). Now I'm able to pay for everything (and a lot of my pay-cheques have gone on buying games I've previously enjoyed). I guess I've kinda been using piracy as a games 'loan'.

I think the RIAA might actually try and sue me for downloading these games. I would welcome them to come to my house and try that. "You've downloaded this and that and the other!" "What, you mean those games that I legally own? Here are my boxed copies of them all, see? I just downloaded them because I didn't want to get out of my chair to go get my original CDs to install them!"

I'm a big fan of ethical piracy. The problem, IMO, is that the piracy protection schemes and the RIAA assume that all consumers are scum.

 

[McDusty]

There was a good article on the BBC recently about this. Yes I have and still have some pirated software.

But apps i really need / games i buy. Most pirated stuff i have stems from my uni days and its not software i would have bought anyway. eg ... if we're given an assignment to produce an animation in 3D Studio Max I can do it in our visualisation lab, but there were often lessons in there, making it difficult to get a comp at times and the machines were slower than my home machine, which is annoying .... simple solution. Download it!

Is it pirated? yes. is it illegal? yes. But have Discreet lost money? no ... because i was never gonna buy it on a uni budget to do a couple assignments.

Have discreet gained anything by uni students obtaining their software by such means? yes .... they end up with more proffesionals capable of using they're software ... which will translate into more companies using/buying their software because thats where the talant pool lies.

The point im trying to make is ... not all piracy is created equal.