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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

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 thankful for piracy because if it didn't exist I would be living a completely different life. I think it also worked out for the companies too. My first job was as a graphics designer at a cable station. It was because of my experience with the latest versions of the software that I was able to make a convincing argument to my Superior to upgrade their software suite. When I transitioned into a developer role (which has always been something I'm better at) I was very familiar with Visual C++ and MFC, so I gravitated towards those technologies.

mcantor 16y ago
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.
- mirkules 16y ago
  Most academic licenses specifically prohibit commercial use (example: Visual Studio), so using academic versions to make money is not legal either
nailer 16y ago
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.

mcantor 16y ago

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.

mirkules 16y ago
Most academic licenses specifically prohibit commercial use (example: Visual Studio), so using academic versions to make money is not legal either

nailer 16y ago

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.