Unless you are making lots of money and somehow expose the fact that it is illegal over and over again, it would be hard to get the authorities even interested in your business. Even if one of your clients turned you in, they probably won't come after you. Local cops can't bust you it is out of their wheelhouse.

PS register cracked software in your name if you're that concerned. Then it looks leagle.

 

Look, it sounds like your friend doesn't want cracked plugins period. Respect his wishes. If all he is doing is mixing, THEN you could probably get away with just exporting the stems that used your cracked plugins and giving him the .wav file to mix. Other than that, in terms of production, try to go legit with him for this project. Because though it's unlikely, there is a chance you COULD get caught I suppose. And that's what your friend wants to avoid/is afraid of. Just go with it for now and do as he says.

 

General to the debate, I like to believe that most of us, if finances permitted, would chose to support the developers and purchase what we use.
It was a personal goal accomplished when I managed to do it and I still think it an achievement I was fortunate enough to be able to.
I'm not godly, in any way, but reckon karma might be a thing worth treating with respect.

Being 'clean', I still use cracks for evaluation purposes, yet I'll always hang out here for music chat because the regulars on kvr are so depressing, though that's a different novel altogether.
If Handy Manny ever gets stuck on a job, there's a place full of countless tools

 

Unless you keep telling everyone you use cracked stuff and post videos of you shouting about warez left and right, I wonder how it could ever be found out. Has it ever happened that some label for example, when you send them tracks, they send someone to your house, to open your DAW, go through each track you have made, channel by channel, and check the licences of all the plugins you used...

I don't think that that will happen.

 

Exactly. Use your cracked stuff in your studio, don't force others if they paid their cash not to do so.

 

If you get known, chances are you'll be making some money, so why not buy the damn things then? Money makes the developers' world go round too, it's the only reason we have all these tools available in the first place.

 

I didn't even install legal versions when I had bought licenses,
why bother when you have r2r?

like aliens said, I like to believe that most of us, if finances permitted, would chose to support the developers and purchase what we use.

he don't wanna to be payed and work with cracked softwares, people will start a very bad reputation.
sad because i work with sonar, and him too. but dont wanna work with my cracked plugins.

I dealt with illegal plugins converting to a "professional" environment, and you know what actually is bad for your reputation? instability.

moral shit aside, we/I had to deal with this, first bought a server and extra computer,
so I could do all the test driving at home, I would switch the computers once a 4 months when considered stable.

the professional studio can't have crashes, simple as that. when I'm producing alone I'm fine with a restart here and there
so since then I tried to buy everything from the top down, when things turn to shit I can pull a developers tie (figuratively)

installing illegal plugins on that guys pc sounds to me like a risky thing to do

 

Bounce everything to wav and give those stems only, to your sound engineer.He doesn't have to see your DAW or what plugins you are using.Put all your bounced tracks on a USB drive and open it in your sound engineers studio....Mix.That's it.

 

Your "soundman" will be just OK. He is all legit. If he has a registered studio it's a must (at least in my country), because he is (willingly) doing business that can be under control of some inspection (mainly taxes). He "told"(?) you not to bring him music made with crcked sw. You can "tell" him, that you don't use any (this "told you, told him" could be very funny in court). He can put it in writing, also - so you can sign. He has no means (nor time, if pro) to "decode" watermarks or some weird sh*t. IFAIK you deliver stems to your audio ing.

 

The beautiful thing, is that a kid with average computer knowledge who knows how to download music or movies, can download plugins and have access to a studio that would cost millions 20 years ago, with emulations of classic expensive gear that are almost identical to the real thing, its kind of punk rock in a computer nerd way haha

 

I used cracked software for a long time, it's only when I went legit that I really started to learn and really get to know the plugins I bought legally. I'm not here to say using cracked software is right or wrong, I would never be that hypocritical. Only thing I really have to say is if you ever start to make money, people are going to want a slice of your pie. Don't make it easy for them.

 

Though too much warez can fuck you up,just ask Kanye.

 

I do. Of course it is wrong, in the meaning of illegal. Everyone should be aware of that fact, wether we like it or not. And if there's anybody here thinking otherwise, I'd advice a good psychiatric aid.
I'm not here to say if or if not to use cracked software. That is the sole decision of everyone on his/her own. As long as everybody is aware that it is theft for the law.
I went through a hard school: A friend of mine is a lawyer, and whatever music I created, his first words weren't "good job" or something, but "any samples ripped?" or "don't put that Marvin Gaye Remix online", etc. So I know how annoying it can be. But with one thing he is right. Be aware of it being illegal, then make your decisions. The worst thing you can do is denying the fact or not knowing of it. Because ignorance is no excuse in law (another fact).

 

I have an interesting anecdote about that but in the world of CGi, a guy who's been hired to do video compositing in a relatively small-medium sized studio where the compositing pipeline was done in AfterEffects. This guy approached the boss to show how much better the pipeline would be with Nuke and showed him in his laptop (if anyone is aware of The Foundry's security, it makes a lot of homecalls)... he was connected to the studio's internet... the studio was fined with 15k pounds because of that.

Not saying it could happen with audio plugins, the majority of them, uppon caugh, makes you purchase the plugin and not too much deal after that... but that was an interesting case to know

 

Evidence of manufacturers forcing you to buy plugins on being caught?

I remember a few years ago a big crackdown on illegal copies of Waves plugins in the US. Quite a few big name studios got sued, it does happen.

 

start making money first, its not that easy, talent is not enough

 

I have always said, I fully intend to 'buy' everything I use on tracks that I make enough money from to purchase them. If I was a software programmer, I would be happy if everybody did that with my software too.

 

Get another soundman. No, really... Get another soundman. You do not need to get morally slapped around in this part of your career. Here are the facts. There is practically zero (0) risk for him. He has chosen to take the moral high ground. Ok. Good for him. Then you do not need each other at this time of your careers.

Get a sound engineer that will focus on helping you without trying to be a saint. Then, as others have mentioned, I think we should buy our vsts and plugins if/when we earn money from the music we make with them.

 

I own all of the plug-ins I use except for one. And I will buy that one. I've spent a couple thousand dollars getting the stuff that I use to make music. And that matters to me because I feel it gives me a creative edge. And because I appreciate the developers - I value the relationship between musician and developer, and I want to support them for providing great tools.

But... I don't give a fuuuuuck what you or anyone else does. And anyone else who lords it over you that you use cracks and he doesn't is either very pretentious or very ignorant. Not everyone can afford to spend $150-200 per synth or $100 per FX plugin. And maybe some people can but aren't ready to make that dive into spending a shitload of money on something they're not quite that serious about yet.

edit: tulamide pointed out I'm dumb. I did more reacting than reading

 

Last edited: Aug 27, 2016

Yea,i remember Bob Rock spending 5 years in the joint for that,tough life.