[CYoung]

Where is the "No Comment" option on this poll?

[Ozwaldo Sanchez]

I've had 2wo occasions were non-legit software has been used.
The first was an upgrade for Quark, which i purchased legally and had trouble upgrading, one very unhelpful phone call to the Quark help desk in the States reviealed that the copy of Quark being updated was regisetered at my previous employer, the man on the other end of the phone was not best pleased! So i still have an un-used update disk @ £200ish collecting dust.

The second, which i am using now, is not so much illegal, but i have the 30 day trial version of a 3d package on a computer i only use for learning the software. As time is very limited in an educational sence, i have set the internal clock to Jan 01 2008 @ 01:00am before installing it, then when ever i use it i keep a note of what time i've finish at. when i re-start i re set the clock to 1 min after i last finished and open up the software. It's amazing how long you can get 30 days @ 24 hours a day, to last!!

I will, when confident i can use the package for commercial gain, buy the legal copy before i start to use it in ernist. (no way i can afford £2000 just to learn)

I'm all for paying for software if it delivers what i need it to do. And for illegal copies, hummmm! time and a place, time and a place!!!! and the commercial world is neither.

There is only one un paid for downloaded music track on my computer and it wasn't me that downloaded it!

[bocaj]

I'm lucky enough to have had software bought for me by some very very kind people, but i did start on a cracked version of CS.

Although (and i'll try and dig this up) a while back adobe stated their thoughts on the use of their software illegally.

The gist of it was that they will not prosecute people with illegal copies, because they've come to the realisation that people download it illegally, use it, get good, go pro, and buy it. Where as if people didn't download it, and didn't play around on it, they wouldn't get good and wouldn't go pro and thus adobe's sales would drop.

While there are some companies using illegal software, i think most pro companies go legit, i did hear (by word of mouth, not a trusted source) that Trading Standards want to start prosecuting regardless of what adobe say.

[bigdave]

I have used Copied Adobe Software in the past. It was CS1 Design Premium, given to me by the Mac Tech at college.

All these years later, I feel quite strongly aganst the practice of downloading cracked software. Firstly its taking a living away from the thousands of employees Adobe has. Secondly its stealing and finally I feel its a personal attack on myself and my profession when people steal photoshop, butcher images with the filters and brand it as design.

[matobo]

Very anti cracked versions here too... and I have had to stay ligit throughout my freelance career bacause I have a mac techie (who charges a fortune to maintain my mac) who won't touch my machine unless everything is 100% legit. It keeps me on the straight and narrow and I appreciate it.

[CloudCover]

Yeah, like a lot of people I hate to admit it, but I have used illegal software in the past. Personally I feel more guilty about hijacking fonts then I do about CS. Once I started actually doing freelance work for my income I cleaned off all my pirated stuff and purchased what I needed. This meant that I had far fewer fonts, but to be honest that was a good thing in terms of load times and lack of confusion (like many people, I tend to use only a handful of fonts day to day...)

Whether the various places that I occasionally work in have legit software is another question - I have to admit that I kind of abdicate responsibility on that one...

I think the problem is the high price of getting into the industry encourages people to torrent the software they should be paying for. I'm alright now, but when I started up I was looking at making just enough to survive week to week. That's why I'm pleased to see such innovations as the free web-based version of PS; it's not full powered, so eventually you have to switch, but it at least gives you enough to get started. If only Adobe would now focus on ensuring better backwards compatibility (so that I could work on InDesign CS4 during the day and take the doc back to continue working on CS3 in the evening) I'd be laughing.

[JohnRoss]

An interesting inconsistency seems to have emerged between the actual poll results and the large number of posts defending a legal-only stance. At the time of my posting this message, the Yes I do's and No I don'ts are tied at 8 (28%) each, with 13 (44%) who Have in the Past. So that is over 70% who use or have used less-than-legal software. Plus, I think it likely that some of the legal-only respondents are employees whose employers provide the software and dictate the policies, so they don't in fact have a choice in the matter.

I won't bore you all with my opinions here, but I have posted about this on my blog if anyone is interested.

[Corbs]

Originally Posted by Pixels Ink

Find yourself a student friend and get them to purchase it on your behalf ;)

Surely this is just as illegal as downloading a cracked version?

C

[Huddlestone]

I dont see no harm with illegally downloading to get the grips of things to then once go into business buy a legit copy, i admit im a current holder of a pirated adobe suite, as theres no way i could afford it, even with student discount, therefore once i start using it commercially i will buy a legit version.

[Corrosive]

Originally Posted by Huddlestone

I dont see no harm with illegally downloading to get the grips of things

Even when Adobe offer a fairly generous free trial?