After the piracy course (with audio warez extensions) i will do the drug trafficking course (with the crack cocaine extension), bribery course and why not the racketeering course? Time is money, and knowledge is always helpful

 

I think many of the "complex" and "technical" explanations are just excuses and justifications for not buying stuff. "too expensive" and "don't have the money" are already good enough reasons. "gotten screwed nearly every time i buy something" is another.

it's funny, but you can "support a dev" and buy something. Even make a good song with it. Email the dev a link and see if they buy your song for 2 bucks on spotify or whatever. Maybe they even express interest in using your song as a demo for their product. So they can put it on their website, still not pay you for the song, and take credit for your work. Then turn around and give free copies to "famous" producers to say they use them to sell more; even though they don't even use the plugin. Free copies for Snake Oil youtubers who don't even make music. Sounds pretty one-way to me.

 

Avicii, Martin Garrix from top of my head

 

The whole ethos, certainly as audio warez is concerned, was and always will be "Try before you buy".
If you USE IT and most importantly, if you make ANY money then BUY IT and support the developers.

It is that simple and as those who, like me, have been part of the scene since the very early days,
will attest that audio warez is NOT there to feed someone's greed, or need to collect and horde it or
their own wrong feeling of entitlement.

A lot of the people using warez have grown up with warez freely available and some believe that they
have the right to it but they have no right what so ever.

Make no mistake, warez is illegal, it is theft of someone else's property and it is not a victimless crime.

Even when a person purchases software of any type, they do not own it in any way, shape or form.
They are simply paying a fee for the licence to use that software in what ever way the licence allows.

Download all that you want, that is your choice of course, but if you use it and/or make money from
it then pay for it.

 

My what?

I rather call it my blessing

 

Thank you all.

Although the initial idea evolved into further perspectives, I would like to reiterate and sum up the following conclusion.

Using pirated software for some can often conflict with one's personal values and integrity as there is a misalignment between your actions and your moral compass.

The knowledge that your actions have negatively impacted others can create distance and strain in your creative endeavors.

Whether you feel dishonest or not, the internal struggle arises from the clash between your desire to do what is right and your engagement in actions that are legally and morally wrong.

That may impact your creativity, as it is hindered by a background sense of guilt.

To simplify: Wouldn't you make better music if everything was legit? Wouldn't you enjoy rotating a physical knob than on a digital synth? In both, there is purity.

And that's what I mean, by the curse of piracy. A battle within yourself.

I am not condemning piracy by any means. I have 500+ cracked plugins. I am forever grateful for everybody who made this happen. Probably I'll never make enough money to buy them all but that doesn't mean it's useless to prioritize the ones worth buying. After all, most of them are just compatibility with past projects.

I appreciate you for sharing your thoughts on this thread.

Good night and good bye.

 

Last edited: Aug 31, 2023

All the Hip Hop scene since the mid 80's to nowdays. Don't forget most of the hits of the genre had uncleared samples of other songs. And yes, thats piracy.

 

I buy the stuff that doesn't use copy protection, or use the minimal amount possible (i.e the kind of protection that anyone with basic knowledge in cracking could circumvent).

Anything that uses protection that is making my machine work harder, or takes up unnecessary space on my drives, is a no-thank-you for me. If they use any kind of time-bombs or other malicious anti user-friendly tactics, I'll do my best to persuade others into not investing money in that company.

I have bought some iLok'd plugins in the past, but I don't nowadays. I use the k'ed versions of those even though I own them.

 

Last edited: Aug 31, 2023

I buy if

1. No intensive DRM like iLok
2. No always-online DRM
3. No account creation required
   
4. The software is quality (if it isn't, I don't even bother pirating either)

Developer laziness and ignorance has given rise to shitty DRM like iLok & always-online protection. I'm fine with anti-piracy, and in fact I RESPECT developers that make effective anti-piracy without making it terrible for the consumer.

 

50+ votes and a handful of anecdotal replies doesn't exactly make a rigorous scientific sampling. I suspect this has been an exercise to allow you (consciously or unconsciously) to articulate your moral dilemma, and now that you have I hope it brings you solace, or closure, or whatever this has been about.

 

There was a video linked on here a while back, with some quick interviews with the guy who runs their board live, and the other guy who runs all the audio effects for their live show. It's about an 8ft tall rack or two of whatever FX modules they are using live. If they own and are taking that much hardware fx gear out on tour, how many plugins do you think they are actually using when working in a studio? I was pretty surprised by the amount of outboard fx they use; it was more like what you would expect of some traditional big rock band on tour.

 

I use pirate software just to see how good (or bad) it is ... After that, I buy that program or never use it again ...

 

As far as I can see the only curse of plugin piracy (hoarding) is that you know you have some plugin or sound library that sounds like this or that, or can do something like this or that. And you know you have it somewhere within all those multiple terabytes of data, but by the time you actually want to use it you are often unable to recall it's name and unable to find it?

 

Last edited: Sep 1, 2023

I'm not sure the morality is the issue here when it come to creativity, the problem with cracked software is that is (kind of) limitless and give you the possibility to try lot of thing, including stuff you don't need. Having to much choice can easily block the creativity, and the opposite is proven to be true as it's the limitation with equipment that allow most modern music to be created in the first place.

That's probably where "the curse of piracy" is