Warez

[Your PCMD]

Straight from my Terms:

"It is our legal responsibility to report any pirated software witnessed during the repair to the appropriate authorities."

With that being said, I have only had one customer in 5 years that had pirated software, and it was the OS and they actually told me it was. And to that, I told them NO. I will NOT work on your computer until you get a legal copy OR purchase it from my shop. Never heard from him again, which is a good thing because I hate a god damn thief. Sorry for the language.

 

[jfm]

Not very professional. Only contributes to the piracy problem. If you don't have enough work to be able to do it right you have chosen the wrong line of work.
The local pizza shop is always hiring.

Are you reporting also the illegally downloaded music they have in their computer ?
The streaming movie links you see in their history ?
The videos they watch on youtube that infringe copyright laws ?
Some random games a friend installed for them ?
That old Office version they don't even use ?
All the porn they watch on random websites that you see in the history ?
The other computer that's in the living room with no Windows Licence ?

Are you going to sell them a licence or paid service for all of those ?
If not, then, you also contribute to the piracy problem.

You better call the police before you touch any computer then.

 

[Porthos]

I think you are confusing my post with the one above me. I don't report anything. My first thing is the Windows OS. If it is not legit I don't accept in for repair if the client is not willing to do the right thing and get legit. If I am tasked to fix an Office issue it better be a legit copy. Same for Adobe.

Movies/music ect. I don't care. I am not tasked to fix a movie. I am not RIAA or the MPAA. Porn as long as its not child( I don't have the time or care to look at all the files) I don't worry about. Porn brings in infected computers. Child porn , I have luckily never seen any.

Most clients never knew about the status of their software. A friend/family or the last repair shop screwed them.
I do give them heads up about the file sharing but its up to them to take action.

I am a registered MS partner and I feel I have an obligation not to work on bootleg systems.

 

[gikstar]

We can say "we aren't the police" for MS, Adobe, and whoever but there's no reason we cant be

On another note, how much does any of these companies (such as Microsoft or Adobe) care if an individual pirates their software. Microsoft probably has people working for them who download these 'cracks' and then figure out how to determine how to notify anyone using the crack that the version they are using is not legal.

With regard to Adobe Photoshop, I am under the impression that they really don't pursue the individual user, just the businesses that use a pirated version. I believe Adobe likes people to experience and learn their products as it will foster businesses to use it also, of the paid version.

With regards to what I do when experiencing a pirated version of Windows, I leave it be unless the O/S has to be reinstalled and then if the client does not have a legal version of the O/S that's on their computer, it's back to the version that the COA sticker on their computer shows or they purchase through me a version of their choice. Other pirated software, we don't fix any problems that they have with that software or caused by having that software.

 

[HFultzjr]

I have found that most customers that have illegal software will want more of the same.
Too cheap to go legit!
Run Forest, run!.........LOL

 

[therealcrazy8]

On another note, how much does any of these companies (such as Microsoft or Adobe) care if an individual pirates their software. Microsoft probably has people working for them who download these 'cracks' and then figure out how to determine how to notify anyone using the crack that the version they are using is not legal.

Microsoft seems to care enough to give individuals money if they come across it. It doesn't matter how much it was, but they made it clear that they care.

With regard to Adobe Photoshop, I am under the impression that they really don't pursue the individual user, just the businesses that use a pirated version. I believe Adobe likes people to experience and learn their products as it will foster businesses to use it also, of the paid version.

If you're intentionally looking for illegal software, and not the trial software, chances are that your intent is not to just "experience" it with plans to get the full version. Those cases, if any, are going to be very few and far between.

With regards to what I do when experiencing a pirated version of Windows, I leave it be unless the O/S has to be reinstalled and then if the client does not have a legal version of the O/S that's on their computer, it's back to the version that the COA sticker on their computer shows or they purchase through me a version of their choice. Other pirated software, we don't fix any problems that they have with that software or caused by having that software.

I do understand that approach, i really do, and in some cases I may do that, like if its grandpa or grandma, Im sure they aren't the ones who got the illegal OS. But I also think as a business, there should be some disclosure to not work on such systems to weed out the deliberate cases. There's no logical business reason for me to work on such systems. Plus even the ones that do come in will likely be few in comparison to my legit clients...So I can actually afford to not work on them. Thats just my opinion though and this topic has shown that many people have all sorts of views on it, which is also OK.

 

[gikstar]

Microsoft seems to care enough to give individuals money if they come across it. It doesn't matter how much it was, but they made it clear that they care.

Have you or do you know someone who has actually received money from Microsoft who has turned in a "single individual" rather than a company, that is illegally using their O/S?

 

[therealcrazy8]

Have you or do you know someone who has actually received money from Microsoft who has turned in a "single individual" rather than a company, that is illegally using their O/S?

No I don't, but that doesn't make the claim that M$ cares enough to pay you, invalid. This may be a huge assumption here, but back in the Napster days, if Metallica (and later other bands) cared that you were downloading a song that would cost you just $1 or so each, Im just taking a shot in the dark that large corporations care about there $200-$700+ software, whether they're vocal about it or not. But again, that's just a guess. Im also guessing that they cared so much that having their software be cloud based wasn't just to be "with the times".

 

[Krynn72]

With regard to Adobe Photoshop, I am under the impression that they really don't pursue the individual user, just the businesses that use a pirated version. I believe Adobe likes people to experience and learn their products as it will foster businesses to use it also, of the paid version.

Back in another life I talked to some people at companies like Autodesk and Adobe at some events I was at. It seemed to be their "unofficial" opinion was exactly what you said. For example, Autodesk knows that students and others trying to learn 3D Modeling software are not going to shell out $3,000 to see if they like it enough to pursue full time, so they basically left the piracy element alone. In fact, they didn't even change how you could crack their software with each version, and probably still havent to this day. You could literally just use the same crack for each version for years and years no matter which model.

The reason they didn't care is because the software is VERY time consuming to learn how to use properly, so the more people familiar with their software the less likely they are to jump to another package when they go legit. Freelancers would not want to risk their livelyhood over it (and their rates if they're good mean that 3 grand is paid for quickly). But more importantly, businesses would see a lot of people with experience using Maya for instance, so the business would buy Maya licenses for all their artists.

With Adobe it worked so well that basically they have a monopoly on the market, and now they can pull off the scam that is Creative Cloud.