4 ms·

This is why a lot of software houses don't come down too hard on individual pirates -- they often become your fans and they might result in business in the futu

by tomc1985 6y ago

This is why a lot of software houses don't come down too hard on individual pirates -- they often become your fans and they might result in business in the future. It's like selling concerts and merch as a musician. Since software dev isn't the domain of lifelong nerds anymore I don't think most folk are as understanding or knowledgeable about the positives of piracy (or related issues around software freedom or the economic properties of digital data), hence your unfortunate downvotes. It's a shame... there are many of us who would not be where we are today, as productive, value-creating citizens, without having learned our trade with pirated software.

sillysaurusx 6y ago
Exactly. I remember begging my mom for Visual C++ 6.0 from eBay for $60 whole dollars when I was like 12, because I had heard that’s what real gamedevs use, and I was determined to become a real gamedev. It’s weird... you can trace that moment to present, and her saying “yes” or “no” would have dramatically changed my economic outcome. Piracy is a wonderful equalizer in that regard. Companies have every right to come down on piracy, but it often works against you if your software is a tool.
- asciident 6y ago
  What did she say? Don't leave us hanging...
  - sillysaurusx 6y ago
    She said yes :) I owe a lot to that decision. It's also helped me understand what "privilege" is – many, many parents would have been like "no, now go do your homework." (I wasn't a very good student.) But, for example, Visual Studio 2003 Architect Edition was so expensive that I think it was a few thousand dollars at the time. Piracy enabled me to learn that, too. And surprise surprise, when I got into the gamedev industry, that was what they used. From Microsoft's standpoint, it was nothing but benefit: in addition to adding +1 productive programmer to the world, the piracy also caused me to become something of a Microsoft evangelist, similar to Carmack. It helped me appreciate a good IDE back before Webstorm made it a reality for Javascript. Of course, that eventually led to discovering Emacs (or rather being forced to learn it due to a twist of fortune) and then evolving into my bearded open-source devil form... Now if only there were an Emacs equivalent for 3D modeling and music, I'd be happy as a clam. Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush. EDIT: By the way, I was delighted to discover that Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/ https://www.photopea.com/) is a completely free, browser-based alternative to Photoshop. It has almost an identical UI, and it does 100% of what I need out of photoshop. We've been paying the $35/mo creative suite license, but I imagine lots of people still pirate it.
    - jackson1442 6y ago
      If you're wanting desktop software, Affinity[0] sells one-time-purchase licenses for their Photo, Designer, and Publisher software. I've never used Photoshop/Illustrator and generally do rather light work when I do need to edit/design, but I've been very happy with my purchase. Each license is $50, and the recently went on sale for $25 (but that's over now). [0]: https://affinity.serif.com https://affinity.serif.com
      - culturestate 6y ago
        I can't speak for the Photoshop -> Photo transition since that's never really been my thing, but if you've been using CS professionally for any length of time then going from Illustrator + InDesign to Designer + Publisher take some significant muscle memory retraining. I've been gradually switching over for the last ~6 months but I still have to reach for Ai or Id if there's a really time-sensitive task. The amount of subconscious automation that goes into making you really proficient at using some tool becomes very obvious when you try to use a different one.
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        (I cracked those back in high school and then purchased them because they were so good…)
        jackson1442 6y ago
        Exactly what I did.
    - Marsymars 6y ago
      My parents had stable jobs, but weren't super well off when I was a kid; but one thing that I only really appreciated in retrospect was that they gave me an effectively unlimited budget for books. They'd give me suggestions and buy me books that they thought would be worthwhile reads, but they'd also buy whatever fantasy/sci-fi books I asked for. Thankfully for my parents' wallets, I did spend a lot of time at our town library.
    - 6y ago
the_af 6y ago
> [...] there are many of us who would not be where we are today, as productive, value-creating citizens, without having learned our trade with pirated software. Agreed. I learned to program with GW-BASIC which if I remember correctly was included in a (pirated) copy of MS-DOS. Then I graduated to pirated Turbo C and Borland C++, and (I think) only then to the genuinely free DJGPP (a port of GCC for DOS). If it weren't for pirated software, I wouldn't be a programmer today.
chaos_a 6y ago
This is why free student packs are super valuable. Students typically have little to no money and can't afford to buy expensive software. So the company gives you a temporary free copy so that once you have a job in the field your learning you can afford actually afford to buy it.
Hamuko 6y ago
>It's a shame... there are many of us who would not be where we are today, as productive, value-creating citizens, without having learned our trade with pirated software. I imagine Adobe has managed to keep a lot of mindshare for Photoshop simply by how widely it is pirated. If pirating Photoshop was absolutely impossible, there'd probably be a lot more Gimp users in this world.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

Exactly. I remember begging my mom for Visual C++ 6.0 from eBay for $60 whole dollars when I was like 12, because I had heard that’s what real gamedevs use, and I was determined to become a real gamedev. It’s weird... you can trace that moment to present, and her saying “yes” or “no” would have dramatically changed my economic outcome. Piracy is a wonderful equalizer in that regard. Companies have every right to come down on piracy, but it often works against you if your software is a tool.

asciident 6y ago
What did she say? Don't leave us hanging...
- sillysaurusx 6y ago
  She said yes :) I owe a lot to that decision. It's also helped me understand what "privilege" is – many, many parents would have been like "no, now go do your homework." (I wasn't a very good student.) But, for example, Visual Studio 2003 Architect Edition was so expensive that I think it was a few thousand dollars at the time. Piracy enabled me to learn that, too. And surprise surprise, when I got into the gamedev industry, that was what they used. From Microsoft's standpoint, it was nothing but benefit: in addition to adding +1 productive programmer to the world, the piracy also caused me to become something of a Microsoft evangelist, similar to Carmack. It helped me appreciate a good IDE back before Webstorm made it a reality for Javascript. Of course, that eventually led to discovering Emacs (or rather being forced to learn it due to a twist of fortune) and then evolving into my bearded open-source devil form... Now if only there were an Emacs equivalent for 3D modeling and music, I'd be happy as a clam. Blender is great, but it just can't compete with ZBrush. EDIT: By the way, I was delighted to discover that Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/ https://www.photopea.com/) is a completely free, browser-based alternative to Photoshop. It has almost an identical UI, and it does 100% of what I need out of photoshop. We've been paying the $35/mo creative suite license, but I imagine lots of people still pirate it.
  - jackson1442 6y ago
    If you're wanting desktop software, Affinity[0] sells one-time-purchase licenses for their Photo, Designer, and Publisher software. I've never used Photoshop/Illustrator and generally do rather light work when I do need to edit/design, but I've been very happy with my purchase. Each license is $50, and the recently went on sale for $25 (but that's over now). [0]: https://affinity.serif.com https://affinity.serif.com
    - culturestate 6y ago
      I can't speak for the Photoshop -> Photo transition since that's never really been my thing, but if you've been using CS professionally for any length of time then going from Illustrator + InDesign to Designer + Publisher take some significant muscle memory retraining. I've been gradually switching over for the last ~6 months but I still have to reach for Ai or Id if there's a really time-sensitive task. The amount of subconscious automation that goes into making you really proficient at using some tool becomes very obvious when you try to use a different one.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      (I cracked those back in high school and then purchased them because they were so good…)
      - jackson1442 6y ago
        Exactly what I did.
  - Marsymars 6y ago
    My parents had stable jobs, but weren't super well off when I was a kid; but one thing that I only really appreciated in retrospect was that they gave me an effectively unlimited budget for books. They'd give me suggestions and buy me books that they thought would be worthwhile reads, but they'd also buy whatever fantasy/sci-fi books I asked for. Thankfully for my parents' wallets, I did spend a lot of time at our town library.
  - 6y ago

the_af 6y ago

> [...] there are many of us who would not be where we are today, as productive, value-creating citizens, without having learned our trade with pirated software. Agreed. I learned to program with GW-BASIC which if I remember correctly was included in a (pirated) copy of MS-DOS. Then I graduated to pirated Turbo C and Borland C++, and (I think) only then to the genuinely free DJGPP (a port of GCC for DOS). If it weren't for pirated software, I wouldn't be a programmer today.

chaos_a 6y ago

This is why free student packs are super valuable. Students typically have little to no money and can't afford to buy expensive software. So the company gives you a temporary free copy so that once you have a job in the field your learning you can afford actually afford to buy it.

Hamuko 6y ago

>It's a shame... there are many of us who would not be where we are today, as productive, value-creating citizens, without having learned our trade with pirated software. I imagine Adobe has managed to keep a lot of mindshare for Photoshop simply by how widely it is pirated. If pirating Photoshop was absolutely impossible, there'd probably be a lot more Gimp users in this world.