Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Deliberate Pirating ?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Wp100

Well-Known Member
Hi,

Something that has often made me wonder .. do some software companies deliberately allow their programs to be used illegally ?

A typical example would be Proteus where its evident many illegal copies are around, even the very latest version 7.5

Perhaps without full registration you cannot use all its features /updates ? , so are they happy to let diy jo play around with them, on the basis that some might progress into employment where they will promote the use of that program ?

As someone who paid a modest fee for an early version of Ares, I would have thought in this day and age, better protection could be used, hence my question.
 
There has never been created a software copy protection method that a cracker can't beat. It's like a competition to them, to see who's group can publish software and cracks for it first, in fact software with hardcore DRM protection of often cracked sooner than easier software simply because the groups like to show how pitiful those DRM methods are. Heavy DRM protection on software usually penalizes rightful users rather than protects. The more expensive the software the more likley it is to be pirated as well, for something like Proteus where a weekend hobbyist can't justify the cost for playing around with a lot of people pirate it. Personally I use the free/opensource tools available out there.
 
I'm pretty sure if they just want people to get to use it to get used to it they would release it for general use the way MS does with visual studio, and only make you pay if you want the publisher versions.
 
I'm pretty sure that 3D Studio got an official hack released about 15 (maybe more) years ago. It worked perfectly until your model reached a certain size and then it randomly moved vertices in your model. The odds of that happening have to be astronomical and so I do believe that a certain amount of piracy is not only acceptable but is a covert advertising campaign.

Mike.
 
It's not very covert. Intentional or not piracy can't be stopped, for a company to spend any money to intentionally release a crack for their products would be stupidity, at least nowdays. The odds aren't all that astronomical Pommie, bad crackers screw up all sorts of weird stuff that cause random unpredictable crashes and errors. If they wanted to provide sample software they just release limited version of the software without all the code from the full version. I do think in some cases piracy actually helps the software industry, because many expensive tools have no trial version. Someone using a cracked version with bugs or little support will be more inclined to buy the retail version of the software if they are able. I still can't however see a comany actually doing that intentionally.
 
even professional programs arent nesscisarily that elegantly coded, its completely possible there is a different module for objects over a certian number of verticies, or a module required to handle them anyway, that got messed up or left out. If you were to map out all the modules of 3ds max and what they do it would probably be as complex as the schmatics for a car or a comercial jet.
 
There are companies that will release full versions covertly. The idea is that they want new users to get used to using their product. That way when they get into the job market, people know their product instead of someone elses. They then make sure the companies pay for the licenses from there. Too hard and costly to crack down on individuals, and why would you want to remove experienced users from your market?

As someone already mentioned, 3D Studio is a prime example of this.
 
If thats the case then theres a hell of a lot of people hooked on photoshop. That program gets pirated more than a boat carring the prince of South Ransomstania past the horn of africa.
 
smanches, that only works if you have a superior product, which will be pirated anyways. I have a friend that uses 3DStudio for art work, he'll never pay for it he's on disability. For Photoshop you have The Gimp as an alternative.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top