Poll: Do you pirate animation software?
Sunday July 27, 2008
Recently I've had a rash of readers asking me to send them animation software. Yes, send it to them - take paid, licensed animation software, pack it up in a nice little e-mail (nevermind the file size), and send it to them for free. People have asked me for Flash, 3D Studio Max, Maya - anything they want to get their hands on. The major animation software packages are horribly expensive, and I have to pick and choose what I'm going to spend hundreds or even thousands in licensing fees on. There's a reason I waited so long to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash. The cost is one of them. Other people, though, find a way around the cost by pirating the software via various warez sites, P2P distribution, or even just old-fashioned CD copies. Still others think that's wrong, and will either scrounge to pay for the software or do without. What's your stance on the issue?
Do you pirate animation software?*
- Yes. It's too expensive; how do they expect everyone to afford that?
- Only if I really can't afford it, like the bigger ones. Otherwise I pay for it.
- No. That's illegal, and unfair. The developers worked long and hard on that, and deserve to be compensated.
- No, because I don't want to get caught and pay fines.
- No, but I don't have a problem with it.
- Other/will explain in comments.
*Remember, poll results are anonymous. Answering "yes" to the poll will not expose you to legal liability, so it's safe to be honest. This is just a reader poll, not an effort to expose software pirates.
Comments
No, I don’t think it’s fair to those who create the software in the 1st place, though due to cost I’d never buy a complete version of say Maya or 3D Max. I did have a student copy of 3D Max when I was taking an animaiton course at a community college. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to afford such software as long as it stays under a $500-$600 or so range. I started with Animation Master and now have Lightwave due to a special deal they had for AM users a couple years back. Hoping their next upgrde doesn’t price me out.
As a special note, Truespace 7.6 is now free on their site. You just have to register and then d/l.
Some years ago I did buy, products such as MS Office, or Visual Basic from sellers on eBay, and generally received valid products that I could license at that time. I did buy a 3D program too, that I thought was the real thing, but was sent a CD copy actually meant for another person. Could not contact the original seller. Never installed it, though I was tempted to. Only time I was burnt by an eBay deal.
If I was going to pirate SW I’d not trust using a warez site, as I feel anyone who is willing to put software out there like that, likely has little compunction about sending me trojans and viruses, or whatever as well.
I sure wish some of the animation programs were a lot cheaper, particularly as I just do this as a hobby and don’t expect to make any money at it, but that is not the way it is. There is a lot of good moderately priced animation software out there, so it’s not like I’m left empty handed by the big bucks packages.
Ted
No, There are quite a number of free programs around, if you look hard. You can do some reasonable stuff with them. Once you feel you are up to standard, you will know more what you are looking for in the more expensive programs, and you may be able to justify the expense. We do not have a budget to buy the big programs…I don’t know how people afford them. Philip
use Blender! for 3D
I never buy pirated software. What I have done when purchasing a magazine that has free programs (not demos) and they won’t work, and I contact the company and they say, oh, that is no longer available, even though I bought the current mag, I will find a serial key…
No, I think its not fair to the programmers who spend many hours building & debugging all the software’s components. But just having to buy software can sometimes leave a burden since I don’t make that much money. Freeware & Open source is the way to go!!!!
Yes - why not - they have not lost a customer - I was never a potential customer as I acnt afford the crazy prices. I[m not a pro. I cannot harm their sales. In fact I might increase them when people see my results and ask what app I used to create it. Those people may turn out to be customers.