Thread: Pirate software

Can you believe it...

I've terminated a reseller who was using a cracked copy of vB, his reply was to uninstall, then install a new version. This also was cracked. The vB piracy team are very quick to respond to these reports

Some people just don't seem to understand about the costs involved with maintaining & supporting software.

If you don't want to pay the software license, then look for free software with similiar functionality or write your own.

vBulletin is such great software, you should just buy a license. It's totally worth it.

Originally Posted by Cridiron

vBulletin is such great software, you should just buy a license. It's totally worth it.

Popular maybe, Great software ? The system appears to resend the style sheet as part of the page load (maybe just the setup on the boards I've looked at) and is full of tables for layout. Hardly current standards compliant coding

Unfortunately people don't see stealing a bit of software in the same light as stealing something physical.

Just look at how many people copy CD's & DVD's these days.

However look at all the fuss that's been made in the press in the UK because someone stole some real money rather than stealing someone's profit.

Originally Posted by monaghan

However look at all the fuss that's been made in the press in the UK because someone stole some real money rather than stealing someone's profit.

Yeh, after all ?40M is neither here nor there is it? Small change really and not worth bothering with.

?40M of insured cash from a big outfit is a bit different from loss of revenue from a small outfit.

Originally Posted by monaghan

?40M of insured cash from a big outfit is a bit different from loss of revenue from a small outfit.

So the banks pay the insurance premiums from the money we pay them in bank charges and loan interest. Make a claim and the insurance premiums go up.

The insurance company pays out ?40M back to the banks so the insurance company is ?40M down. The same insurance companies that look after your home and car insurance, your pension, endowments and other savings products.

If the stolen money is used in organised crime then expect it to be used to traffic drugs or something equally nasty. The same drugs that could well be offered to your son or daughter while they're at school.

No man is an island, everything that happens has a knock on effect.

I'm not suggesting that the crime is acceptable, just the fact that your average person would condem the thief who steals (in this case) money from the bank or your car or your TV. But that same person would happily copy their friend's CD/DVD/software.

Real case example, someone in the office I'm presently in was upset as some of the vouchers they'd sent out as an award for a corporate bonus scheme had been stolen in the postal system and were being used (these particular ones have no method of being identified during the transaction, only at the time the retailer cashes them in). However a week or 2 later they're loading their MP3 player at lunch time from a stack of CD-R's with the latest chart CD's copied to them.

The pile of CD's was probably a greater loss of revenue than the physical loss of the vouchers, but the CD's were acceptable and they were even offering to allow others to make further copies of the pirate copies.

The point I'm trying to make is that software piracy now seems to be a socially acceptable crime even to the middle classes.