Comments on: Why pirated software is better than bought software

By: pythonfan

pythonfan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:30:12 +0000

AMAZING BLOG! COMPLETELY TRUTHFUL MOST PEOPLE I THINK WHO USE PIRATED SOFTWARE THOUGH FIND IT TO GIVE BETTER RESULTS ALL THE CRAP IS USUALLY TORN OUT OF IT.

By: 15 key articles on DRM - franticindustries.

15 key articles on DRM - franticindustries. — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:39:54 +0000

[…] Besides these 15 articles, you might be interested in the coverage of DRM-related topics here at franticindustries: The solution to the DRM problem Can DRM ever be good? Why pirated software is better than bought software […]

By: Ableton Live

Ableton Live — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:41:28 +0000

I’ve always found it interesting in the music industry how most of the producers all use cracked software then kick up a fuss when one of their tunes makes it onto file sharing software! pffft

By: Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:21:14 +0000

Also consider how the availability of software for free has furthered the development of the internet as a whole. How many professional developers/designers do you know who have, at least in the beginning, started off with pirated versions of photoshop or flash or 3dmax etc because the idea of paying thousands of dollars for such software was out of the question. Not that that makes it legal or in the eyes of the law moral. But without such availability of essential tools, there would be far fewer developers out there on the market and the web would probably not be what it is today.

I wonder how others would respond to this notion.

By: Can DRM ever be good? - franticindustries.

Can DRM ever be good? - franticindustries. — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 15:47:12 +0000

[…] It’s easy. Instead of putting negative DRM into your content, introduce positive DRM into it. Instead of putting restrictions into the content, add value to the content. When you download an MP3 song from eMule, you get the song and nothing else. When you download it off iTunes, you get a code which gives you a free t-shirt. Or 20% discount on a concert of the band. Or a password which enables the user to watch the video of the song. Give instead of taking. Beat piracy by being better than piracy. Because right now, DRM-free stuff is better than DRM stuff - thus, pirated content has more value than bought content. And people aren’t stupid. […]

By: Stan Schroeder

Stan Schroeder — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:40:50 +0000

@Leah: thx for the Ladytron example, I didn’t know that. I’m sure Ladytron wished they used some pirated software that night.

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:31:13 +0000

And yeah, how awesome is it that I typo /. in my first sentence. ; ; Anyway, great blog.

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:30:19 +0000

Couldn’t agree more (found your blog via ./ article today).

What’s been most telling to me is people I’ve run across who had never previously dipped so much as a toe in warez culture, yet who were gradually driven to use cracked, CP-free releases or patches of programs/games they already bought because it was just so much simpler to run something that doesn’t nag or flake out on you.

There was a story floating around (possible apocryphal) of electronic music group Ladytron having an issue with their sequencer software (Ableton Live) deciding to ask for reauthorization during a live performance. And that’s just an example of copy protection at its most absurd–what about the millions upon millions of times that legitimate home users and the like have run into a CP issue in some mundane circumstance? The needless phone calls to reauth software because someone changed a device on their system? The fact that one now has to purchase a $50 dongle to store licenses for software one has already purchased licenses for, and should the dongle break or be lost etc., one is at the mercy of the dongle manufacturer for recourse despite having the CD or DVD software in one’s hand?

The software industry–and its insidious parasite, the copy protection industry–is trying to fight fire with fire. It has only made the warez scene more diligent, informed, and competent. It’s quite heartening to read people’s predictions that Vista’s insane CP measures will be cracked the day it’s on store shelves–and we’re not talking about the “bad” kind of “pirates” who abuse and profit off of warez, but the ordinary home users who are becomingly increasingly disgusted with the glut of CP crammed into their software.

Information wants to be free, and part of that is the capacity to access and interact with it without impediment. Defensive measures will all fail eventually–everything can and will be cracked, emulated, bypassed. Maybe Vista will herald an epiphany for software makers if users revolt against the tyranny of copy protection and turn en masse to the warez scene for relief. Perhaps we will even, finally, review the absurdity of software licensing which is behind all of this CP nonsense, and forge a better contract regarding intellectual property rights and ownership. Time will tell!