Piracy, we've all done it

Yep, I did my fair share of pirating. Back in the days of Sinclair and Commodore it was just a case of sticking two tapes in a boom box and away you go.

Cant say I have pirated anything for a fair few years now, but that is mainly because I dont have a lot of time for games anymore :(

The interesting thing is, I'm preparing to start selling premade spreadsheets and tools AKA pre-packaged software and guess what my biggest worry is. Yep, piracy. What goes around, comes around I suppose

Dave, I think you will find they gave into that one in the end.

Same with VHS Taping of TV.

Safe

I thought you was only allowed to store recorded tv on any media for 30 days from transmission? But to be fair I could be well of the mark, it has been known once or twice! lol

Garhhhhh,

Adobe used to strategically support/"blind-eye" piracy of their software years ago, because it meant they ended up a part of every wannabe designer/developers toolkit; so the entire "next generation" (as they were in late 90's/early 00's) of graphic designers, web designers developed a dependency on their software.

Now they're industry standard for pretty much this very reason.

Therefore, piracy is fantastic and we should do more of it.

There are a lot of gaming companies that believe the samething Mike.

There are a growing number of games that detect that they are pirated copy and just disable in game items such as levels, weapons etc. So the person playing it still gets a taste of the game.

Microsoft would certainly not be where it is today without piracy. Windows was the most pirated piece of software going, which allowed it to establish a critical mass in the market place blocking out competitors

To coin a popular high-street banking phrase: "there is another way".

I find a lot of people go down the piracy route (with software) because they want the product but either can't afford or just don't want to pay for it. I know many will claim the ol' "I'm trying it and if I like it I'll buy it" approach, but seriously - how many actually go and purchase the product they've just pirated?

Open-Source software, however, fits that little niche very nicely. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Open Source software is available for no cost at all, and best of all if there's something about it that you think could be improved, you can easily suggest it to those that actually write the software. You can't do that too readily with the likes of Adobe.

I have certainly gone to buy games from companies I have pirated games from. The pirated game, selling me the game makers ability to make a game.

Cant say I have knowingly pirated any business software but my requirements are minimal.

On the Adobe front, I believe you can now (or in the near future) rent the software and particular features for a fraction of the cost of buying the full package. So for those just wanting to try it or just use a couple of features, it becomes worth just "renting" those features.

Robert, you may be right, but with the internet now, you can get what you want when you want it. By paying or not paying.

Serious Sam 3 has the best DRM ever. If it detects you're playing pirated software it spawns a massive unkillable Scorpion which chases you forever and WTFPWNS you :)

Steam have got it right, no point pirating PC games when Steam makes it so easy to purchase them properly.

Matthew, yes my son is a user of steam and just waits for the offers.

Good games reduced to a few quid.

SaaS and Cloud Applications / Services will stamp out the majority Piracy in my opinion, I think everything will eventually go down the subscription / pay-as-you-play route.

Adobe CS6, Diablo 3 etc. We are entering the SaaS age whether we like it or not!