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Alternatives to software piracy Ravi Bhavnani17-Dec-01 7:19 Ravi Bhavnani 17-Dec-01 7:19  In my book, software piracy is plain wrong, regardless of whether you can get away with it and/or you can't afford to purchase a legal copy. As a shareware developer, I've seen my products ripped off over the years. This directly affects my bottom line, but still doesn't make it right for me to steal other people's software. Here are some things you can do to keep the cost of your software down: Delay upgrading your development tools if possible. I bit the bullet and bought MSVC++ 6.0 because it's integral to my development effort, but held off from using MS Office 2000 for over a year. Instead, I bought a used (non-OEM) copy of MS Office 97 which served me very well. Use older versions of non-essential tools. I use Adobe Photoshop 4.0 (which I bought used) for all my imaging tasks and have no plans to upgrade to the latest and greatest version. Before I switched to Photoshop, I used PaintShop Pro, a much less expensive imaging app. Use simpler, less expensive tools if possible. I used to use Installshield at work, but couldn't afford to spring for my own copy. So instead I use Eschalon Setup Wizard which provides 90% of the functionality at a 20% of the cost. (Eschalon is now defunct, which means I don't have support. If encountered a serious problem, I would switch to a newer, free installer like InnoSetup or NullSoft's Installer). Use free/online resources if possible. I prefer to use the online version of MSDN instead of subscribing to the CD set. This means I don't have access to the information at all times, but it's cheaper than springing for a subscription. I prefer to pay a flat monthly fee for cable modem service which allows easy access to MSDN (and everything else on the web). For version control, consider using CVS or an alternative open source tool. For diffing, check out the excellent open source tool WinMerge. For web site development, I use Dynamic Drive and Matt's Script Archive instead of script generation tools. I'm not implying that all these suggestions will work for you, but it's a start. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." ravib@ravib.com http://www.ravib.com Re: Alternatives to software piracy Fazlul Kabir17-Dec-01 11:37 Fazlul Kabir 17-Dec-01 11:37  Great tips, Ravi. I'd like to add one more.. Buy used software. I've found auction sites like eBay.com, Buy.com are great for this. I've often seen software of even latest versions on these sites. //Fazlul Get RadVC today! Play RAD in VC++ http://www.capitolsoft.com Re: Alternatives to software piracy Ravi Bhavnani17-Dec-01 11:51 Ravi Bhavnani 17-Dec-01 11:51  You're right - EBay is a great place to buy used software (and hardware!). /ravi "There is always one more bug..." ravib@ravib.com http://www.ravib.com Re: Alternatives to software piracy Stormwind17-Dec-01 15:18 Stormwind 17-Dec-01 15:18  Isn't selling used software a violation of the end user agreement? Re: Alternatives to software piracy Ravi Bhavnani18-Dec-01 2:14 Ravi Bhavnani 18-Dec-01 2:14  Not if you uninstall it from your system. Many vendors buy end-of-lease equipment from companies and resell the hardware and software. However, selling OEM software without the accompanying hardware is a violation of the OEM agreement. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com Re: Alternatives to software piracy Navin18-Dec-01 9:06 Navin 18-Dec-01 9:06  Not always! It depends on your end user license agreement. Some programs stipulate that you have a non-transferrable right to use the program... that is, you can't legally transfer it to anyone else. Whether this is enforceable, or even permissible to put in an EULA, I'm not sure, but I've seen it before. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Re: Alternatives to software piracy John M. Drescher19-Dec-01 3:06 John M. Drescher 19-Dec-01 3:06  Not if you uninstall it from your system. >I don't believe most people that sell used software on Ebay do in fact remove the software from their PC first. Re: Alternatives to software piracy Nish Nishant17-Dec-01 16:40 Nish Nishant 17-Dec-01 16:40  Ravi I understand you are an Indian from your name and thus you'd know that US$1= Indian Rs 47/- Means we pay 47 x X for each piece of software. I really don't see how the average Indian Programmer can afford to do that. The only alternate solution is to move over to Linux. Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut Re: Alternatives to software piracy Kannan Kalyanaraman17-Dec-01 22:36 Kannan Kalyanaraman 17-Dec-01 22:36  Nish [BusterBoy] wrote: The only alternate solution is to move over to Linux. Well Said Nish, I totally agree with you. In India, Linux is getting more and more popular particularly in the universities where more people are going towards Linux. Recently, Bangalore hosted a Linux Users Conference which gives you some indication of visibility linux has been getting off late here. I was surprised to see local groups actively involved in linux.... http://www.chennailug.org I think in future there are more chances of Indian students getting involved in open source than it was before. Cheers Kannan Re: Alternatives to software piracy George17-Dec-01 22:52 George 17-Dec-01 22:52  Not every software on Linux is cheap or free. You have the OS for the price of media (download, CD etc.) but Linux itself doesn't quite do the job. You need another software to run it on Linux, and that doesn't depend on the price of Linux itself. It is true that there is a lot of software comming from Open Source but even that is not always cheap. Open Source is about availability of source code, not the price. Re: Alternatives to software piracy Nish Nishant17-Dec-01 23:53 Nish Nishant 17-Dec-01 23:53  I was talking about developers. In India an average developer wont be able to afford MSDN or Visual Studio. But gcc is free. So is KDevelop and so are all the man pages and all the GTK/QT libraries Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut Re: Alternatives to software piracy George18-Dec-01 3:51 George 18-Dec-01 3:51  Nish [BusterBoy] wrote: In India an average developer wont be able to afford MSDN or Visual Studio. IMHO MSDN subscription is expensive regardless of your country and average developer can hardly afford it. But for the company it's not a big cost. As for Visual Studio I believe that there are an "Academic" versions that are much cheaper than Proffesional or Enterprise release. They are good enought to learn the environment, but not licensed for production. You can try one of those. Re: Alternatives to software piracy Ravi Bhavnani18-Dec-01 2:24 Ravi Bhavnani 18-Dec-01 2:24  Hi Nish, Nish [BusterBoy] wrote: The only alternate solution is to move over to Linux. That's a good point. Or one could use open source tools, if possible. Admittedly, there are more on Unix than Windows. All I'm saying is that it's wrong for me to steal software because I find it expensive (which I do, even in the US!). /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com Re: Alternatives to software piracy Tim Smith18-Dec-01 4:03 Tim Smith 18-Dec-01 4:03  All I'm saying is that it's wrong for me to steal software because I find it expensive (which I do, even in the US!). EXACTLY. I can deal with the "try before you buy" and "I just ran it once to convert a file" type stuff, but all this other stuff is just rationalization. If I wanted to become a machinists, I just can't break into Sears and steal $1000 worth of hardware just so I can learn my trade. The same thing applies to software. People have just gotten so use to rationalizing it away since it is so easy to do. Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc. Re: Alternatives to software piracy Christian Graus18-Dec-01 12:34 Christian Graus 18-Dec-01 12:34  You're such a troller, Nish. And of course all these Indian programmers will get rich writing free software for Linux.... Christian After all, there's nothing wrong with an elite as long as I'm allowed to be part of it!! - Mike Burston Oct 23, 2001 Sonork ID 100.10002:MeanManOzI live in Bob's HungOut now Re: Alternatives to software piracy George18-Dec-01 15:25 George 18-Dec-01 15:25  Christian Graus wrote: And of course all these Indian programmers will get rich writing free software for Linux.... Just for the record: free software is about the freedom not the price as anybody who bothers to read licenses knows. Re: Alternatives to software piracy Christian Graus18-Dec-01 17:13 Christian Graus 18-Dec-01 17:13  I always get one.... Christian After all, there's nothing wrong with an elite as long as I'm allowed to be part of it!! - Mike Burston Oct 23, 2001 Sonork ID 100.10002:MeanManOzI live in Bob's HungOut now Re: Alternatives to software piracy Nish Nishant18-Dec-01 17:57 Nish Nishant 18-Dec-01 17:57  Christian Graus wrote: I always get one.... Huh? get what? Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut Re: Alternatives to software piracy Christian Graus18-Dec-01 18:48 Christian Graus 18-Dec-01 18:48  Reel in a Linux zealot when I troll them. Christian After all, there's nothing wrong with an elite as long as I'm allowed to be part of it!! - Mike Burston Oct 23, 2001 Sonork ID 100.10002:MeanManOzI live in Bob's HungOut now Re: Alternatives to software piracy Nish Nishant18-Dec-01 16:09 Nish Nishant 18-Dec-01 16:09  Christian Graus wrote: You're such a troller, Nish LOL Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org If you don't find me on CP, I'll be at Bob's HungOut Re: But how can you resist new versions Tili23-Dec-01 8:15 Tili 23-Dec-01 8:15  Well those are great tips one could use. But how you people can resist if you see there is a new version and even you can get it for a Dollar. Like here in Pakistan I bought windows XP,Fifa 2002 and lots of accounting softwares on one CD.All 3 CDs for ONE DOLLAR. In my dream, I was dorwning in my §orrow§ But my §orrow§, they learned to §wim Re: But how can you resist new versions Ravi Bhavnani23-Dec-01 11:29 Ravi Bhavnani 23-Dec-01 11:29  No, you didn't buy it for a dollar, you stole it for a dollar. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com funny, no one's afraid of getting caught. Wes Jones17-Dec-01 6:17 Wes Jones 17-Dec-01 6:17  Just an interesting observation: no one's said that they don't engage in software piracy because they fear getting caught. (as of 118 votes) C:\DOS C:\DOS\RUN \\RUN\DOS\RUN Re: funny, no one's afraid of getting caught. Chris Maunder17-Dec-01 10:16 Chris Maunder 17-Dec-01 10:16  Exactly my thought cheers, Chris Maunder Re: funny, no one's afraid of getting caught. Sasha Djurovic19-Dec-01 16:31 Sasha Djurovic 19-Dec-01 16:31  If someone is afraid of getting caught downloading pirated software they may as well be afraid of admitting of doing so to some online poll.

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