Hey!

I'm new here so if i do something i shouldnt or dont post in appropriate ways/places please tell me and i'll make sure to change that.

I've been thinking more and more about writing a big blog article about the weird situation in dsp world were many companies, even big ones, have really pricey tools but still struggle to be that financially stable when trying to make non gimmicky products.

I think the vast majority of plugins companies dont really understand their userbase, ultimately harming their business model and pushing users toward cracks comming from predatory repacking platforms, while i'm convinced a few ajustments could make everyone happier. to sum up..

The idea is still nascent for me and i'm rn more trying to see who i could exchange view points with, get more insides, explanations and all, or maybe finding resources that make me realise everything is actually fine (if it's the case) and cancel this projet.
The end goal is to offer a pretty objective view on a situation not that many people seem to care about. Aiming at offering some sort of guidelines to help devs making better decisions to both manage to live from their creativity and offer a fair, better, and respectul experience with them for tools users.
On the other side to inform users of what the state of dsp economy is, why some companies can go suck a dick considering how they treat users and collaborators, and why others desperately need support, provided they take the necessary decisions to allow themselves to get supported properly.

I'm already in contact with many devs, from single person companies, to successful human sized ones like melda or kilohearts, to Native Instruments or Image Line veterans...
But i'm lacking the warez side! So i'm looking for crackers/packers to chat with on that side. I guess most would prefer to keep a low profile but if you ever are/know some, i'd be happy to have a few chats about your/their opinions, why you/they do warez, what are your/their values and moral compas, what do you/they understand from the users needs, frustrations or satisfactions...

that would be really helpful!

I'm mostly looking for oldheads who are still active, to get a better sense on how the audio market and warez response to it grew the last 20 years, ideally who have experience with products of various companies of all scales.
On the other i'm also looking for people who do warez at night, but are plugin devs the day. I know there's some and their opinions may be insanely valuable.
Tbh anyone willing to share this experience would be really nice, those are just the two profiles that feel like they could have bunch of stuff to say

Anyway, tell me what you think and if you ever have people i should reach out to! Feel free to shoot me a dm or whatever too

Have a nice day!

 

Last edited: Jun 5, 2026 at 2:20 PM

you could as well guess some potential situations and reasons and you would be right.

i buy some thing, but i also install things i dont own. and of course i install the liberated versions even of product i own, as they are usually more hassle-free and do not expire.

more important than the reasons is the moral of the story.

my personal view is as simple as that:

- only because something is possible, it is not automatically right.
- only because something is illegal, it is not automatically wrong.

in other words: the responsibility to make the right decision always lies with the user. the rightholder or the cracker or the person who gave you something has nothing to do with your own actions.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by making up some situations, cause i'm not talking here about the individual reasons of each people if that's what you mean, more about the state of an economy we are in that pushes answers to it.
The question for me is not really about what is moral or not, it's about understanding why people dont feel like paying for plugins, and trying to find ways for them to feel ok with paying beside annoying users with bullshit copy protections. Basically finding the right price/business model for each business so that the people interested in them are more likely to feel like it's a fair traid, or a traid they can afford at all.

People are free to do whatever they want for me, questions is more to get a good view on how things are on a global scale in this industry and it's orbiters.

Maybe i'm misunderstanding something in what you said tho

 

Pay people better wages or lower taxes, because many can only afford the bare essentials and rely on pirated software, music, and PDFs to participate in technological progress. The warez scene pales in comparison to the massive fraud perpetrated by Microsoft and Apple.

 

For me it's extended trial and no buyers remorse, if I don't stick with a tool for some time, it's out, don't want to be pressured with sales, demo restrictions, introductory offerings based on all around hype and all that stuff. So there's no element where I'm gaslighting myself while avoiding buyers remorse, just buy stuff I actually use and find valuable.

 

that tbh!

tho i think plugin companies suffers from this maybe not as much as users but to a degree. as much as this is true, we wont fix capitalism yet, we can only try to make it just a bit nicer at tiny scales

 

i should have precised that i'm looking specifically for crackers/packers or people around this sphere, not users of cracks. Sorry for badly explaining that!

tho verry legit take, a bit the same for me here

 

You’re being a bit naive; you won’t find a single person here who’ll talk to you.
Please bear in mind that everything posted here is visible to the public and could potentially lead to criminal prosecution.

 

Sadly it's probably my only option. SAiNT pointed me here, people can always shoot me a dm or something. I even said i know people would better keep low profile. It's just a message in a bottle honestly

 

Predatory/exploitative/abusive monetisation: The product/developer is fair game.

Examples: subscriptions and tax-adjacent schemes (yearly paid "updates"), bundling with shovelware, installing additional software, mandatory tracking, lengthy/ridiculous EULAs (you own nothing, we can rug-pull you whenever we want), refusing to fix bugs, refusing to update plugins (within reason, not expecting compat updates for plugins first released in 1998), no option to create backups of the software, no offline installers, no offline authorisation with backup option.

Everything else I'll happily pay for.