The attitudes about stealing software are amazing - do you have an opinion?

None of the above :

I'm not in favour of software copying cuz I'm a computer science guy and if I make a software and it gets copied, I'll get a huge loss ... financial and moral

I'm in favour of software copying as I use a lot of softwares and if I start copying all of them then I'll save a lot of money .

I think it is NOT ok to copy software but I've done it. When a software costs a lot and you are a student you cant buy anything too expensive. I do not regret having copied the software I did copy because I would not be in the situation I am right now. For example, the only place I could use most programming software was at school and when I copied the software I could better my skills at home and become better. Now because I have used the pirated software, I will soon have a job and have a decent salary to buy my legal software. I know students can get some educational versions of software but its still big amounts. I think students should be able to have software for low costs.

theres a program i am wanting and the student version runs in the thousands... its ridiculous...

Exactly what Im talking about. Student cant afford extreme prices. If they want us to buy licensed products in the future they should be thinking about letting us learn with the software before.

Hello,

Well, it appears that Micro$oft has figured out your dilemma... and offers great student discounts to Office. But if you are a company upgrading Office, the costs are huge.

I love the idea of Open Source software, such as OpenOffice. I use that whenever I can. But I aso went out and purchased some software at home for my Mac OS X computer.

I like the idea of online demos, or software with expiration dates on it, so that you can get the feel of the product before you buy the complete version.

You will find certain companies like QUARK thata extort tooth and nail for unstable crappy software. Just go read their online forums if you do not believe me. The stuff is just not good. You will also find companies like Apple that will have a moderately priced bulk license for their OS, such as the Family OS X (5 user) license for $150 or something like that. You will also find companies like AutoDesk that have ridiculous registration / authorization technique that doesn't work 1/2 the time, and you loose money waiting on the phone for them to get you a proper license key.

Christian

The thing is that if software wasn't that expensive, people wouldn't have to copy them. So in a way it's kind of their fault. Not everyone can afford to pay a few hundred bucks for Windows for EACH computer they have.
But companys mainly make their money of other companys wanting licences to their software anyways.

I'm all for copying software, i am self centred and dont care about people making money other than myself

Me, too!!


So far, some good ideas in response to this poll. Patate has hit on something here - it is true that the majority of a software companies´ revenue comes from corporate clients. Makes you wonder why they don´t give the stuff away to us mortals so that they carry their opinions to work.

Hey guys, only 6 votes out of 40+ views, let´s get with the program and vote! :cheesy: We want to know what you think - no one will know how you voted...

It shouldn't be copied, but all of us have done it I think!