Avast license pirates jump ship, join lawyers

[sg09]

As many of you know few months ago Avast noticed that a license for its paid-for security software, sold to a 14-user firm in Arizona, was being distributed online. Rather than shut down the piracy, the company decided to see how far the software would spread. That licnse has been used by 774,651 people after it went viral on a file-sharing site.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security...-774-651-times

And AGAIN this time..
Pirates have joined the lawyers in their pursuit of avast! antivirus after the late 2010 shutdown of an illegal license

“We had been wondering how long it would take the pirates to find another license. It surprised even us that in only three months, around 750,000 users of the previous pirated license had essentially shifted to this law association’s license,” added Mr. Steckler. “Maybe they thought they could hide behind the law…..”

http://www.avast.com/pr-avast-softwa...can-goes-legal

This latest license piracy is distinct from earlier pirates detected by AVAST Software on the following points:

• Faster: The license spread to three-quarters of a million users in nine months after the license was originally sold. Almost all of these users came in the last three months.
• Updated: All of these pirates have had the new avast! 6.0, with its new AutoSandbox, WebRep, and SafeZone virtualization features.
• None in the Vatican: No users were identified this time in the Vatican City.

[dw426]

Bad Vatican, bad! One or more people there will have some explaining to do when their time comes and they head upstairs You know, I rarely see Avast keys being pirated (umm, not that I look mind you..um, moving on). Usually it's Norton, Kaspersky (which is useless at this point, Kaspersky is well known for shutting down pirated keys at the moment of birth), McAffee (do even pirates want this crap?), and so on. I honestly can't figure out why you'd want to pirate Avast anyway, I mean good grief, at this point they basically hand you about 98% of their suite for free. It's rather idiotic if you ask me.

[Someheresomethere]

Originally Posted by dw426

I honestly can't figure out why you'd want to pirate Avast anyway, I mean good grief, at this point they basically hand you about 98% of their suite for free. It's rather idiotic if you ask me.

Because you want more if you can have more.
You can get the extra features for free, then why not get 'em? The free version feels "incomplete."

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Someheresomethere

Because you want more if you can have more.
You can get the extra features for free, then why not get 'em? The free version feels "incomplete."

How does it feel "incomplete"? In V6, they've given you everything but the kitchen sink for free. Now you even get features that you couldn't get even in the last version unless you paid. All it is missing is options you can get for free elsewhere, and you don't have to sail into pirate waters and likely get infected by malware that came with that pirated security suite you just installed, just so you could get maybe 2 or 3 more checkboxes on the features list.

[IceCube1010]

Originally Posted by dw426

How does it feel "incomplete"? In V6, they've given you everything but the kitchen sink for free. Now you even get features that you couldn't get even in the last version unless you paid. All it is missing is options you can get for free elsewhere, and you don't have to sail into pirate waters and likely get infected by malware that came with that pirated security suite you just installed, just so you could get maybe 2 or 3 more checkboxes on the features list.

Very true. Avast 6 Free is probably the most complete free AV around. I'm not saying it's the best or worst but they definitly cover a lot of vectors for free.

Ice

[Someheresomethere]

Originally Posted by dw426

How does it feel "incomplete"? In V6, they've given you everything but the kitchen sink for free. Now you even get features that you couldn't get even in the last version unless you paid.

It doesn't matter what you actually get. It's a psychological thing: "I can get all the features for free. Then I'm gonna get them. Why miss out on even a single feature if I can get it for free?"

All it is missing is options you can get for free elsewhere, and you don't have to sail into pirate waters and likely get infected by malware that came with that pirated security suite you just installed, just so you could get maybe 2 or 3 more checkboxes on the features list.

It's pretty easy to dodge that kind of malware one way or another these days.

[LethalBoy]

Originally Posted by Someheresomethere

It doesn't matter what you actually get. It's a psychological thing: "I can get all the features for free. Then I'm gonna get them. Why miss out on even a single feature if I can get it for free?"

It's pretty easy to dodge that kind of malware one way or another these days.

Looks like your one of that pirates! LOL..

Avast is very completely and is FREE.. if you need the sandbox feature you can use sandboxie free, for the firewall you can use Comodo, Pc Tools or Private firewall.

So in my opinion there's no need of pirating it just to check 2 or 3 boxes. Also, Avast Internet Security is one of the cheapest suites out there. A month a go I paid like 20 dollars for one year license for my laptop.

[BoerenkoolMetWorst]

It's just human psychology

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Someheresomethere

It's pretty easy to dodge that kind of malware one way or another these days.

If your other security apps detect it, certainly. Don't expect the newly pirated copy of Avast you got to detect it

[J_L]

What does the article mean by Vatican goes legal? I see no mention of it other than no Vatican users of the pirated license this time.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by J_L

What does the article mean by Vatican goes legal? I see no mention of it other than no Vatican users of the pirated license this time.

It means, from what I understand, that in the past, they identified a pirated key being used by a system or systems in the Vatican. This last time they found a pirated key, there were none being used there.

[blasev]

Originally Posted by BoerenkoolMetWorst

It's just human psychology

I can't agree more

[PJC]

None in the Vatican: No users were identified this time in the Vatican City.

Holly...Pirates...Burn in Hell...

[Someheresomethere]

Originally Posted by LethalBoy

Looks like your one of that pirates! LOL..

Nah, I stopped doing that a long time ago. Waste of time. Can always find a promotion for some good av. Currently I have a 1 year promotional key for Avira's Suite, for instance.

Originally Posted by dw426

If your other security apps detect it, certainly.

Not really, depending on what method you're using to pirate the app, you can easily avoid infections. If it's a registration number or cracked .dll file, no danger. If it's a key generator - use Sandboxie, so no danger. If it's an executable, you can use something like ThreatExpert or Anubis to verify what it actually does. Plus usually a very high number of people download those apps, so if it's really infected someone will notice.
So yeah, it's usually pretty easy to avoid infections when dealing with cracked applications. The "you're definitely gonna get infected if you use pirated apps" thing is a myth, perpetuated for a good reason perhaps, but still a myth.

[Technical]

Originally Posted by dw426

Bad Vatican, bad! One or more people there will have some explaining to do Kaspersky is well known for shutting down pirated keys at the moment of birth

But, then, they change from antivirus...
Now avast will freewarize 750 hundreds users and keep with them

Originally Posted by dw426

Bad Vatican, bad! One or more people there will have some explaining to do
I honestly can't figure out why you'd want to pirate Avast anyway, I mean good grief, at this point they basically hand you about 98% of their suite for free. It's rather idiotic if you ask me.

They're looking for the paid features of course...

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Someheresomethere

Nah, I stopped doing that a long time ago. Waste of time. Can always find a promotion for some good av. Currently I have a 1 year promotional key for Avira's Suite, for instance.


Not really, depending on what method you're using to pirate the app, you can easily avoid infections. If it's a registration number or cracked .dll file, no danger. If it's a key generator - use Sandboxie, so no danger. If it's an executable, you can use something like ThreatExpert or Anubis to verify what it actually does. Plus usually a very high number of people download those apps, so if it's really infected someone will notice.
So yeah, it's usually pretty easy to avoid infections when dealing with cracked applications. The "you're definitely gonna get infected if you use pirated apps" thing is a myth, perpetuated for a good reason perhaps, but still a myth.

Well, I agree with "100% getting infected if you use a pirated app" being a myth. Cracked .dll files though, I'm not sure what you mean. Those have been infected before. Also, it's not always one file you have to watch for, it could be buried deep within the hundreds/thousands of files a complex program like that would have. Heh, what I used to do was go download something from the original vendor website, grab the keygen from the P2P website, and, usually, away we go I don't really pirate anymore either, there are good enough free security apps. I can find music for free legally (at least legal enough *wink wink*), and besides, the music people get sued for pirating these days I don't even like (I'm a 90s and older kind of person). As far as movies, hell, most of them I wouldn't even pirate to watch, much less pay.

[Macstorm]

Originally Posted by dw426

As far as movies, hell, most of them I wouldn't even pirate to watch, much less pay.

This is true for the 99.9 percent of films today

[gery]

Originally Posted by Macstorm

This is true for the 99.9 percent of films today

music and other software as well