Reporting pirate update servers

I´ve read the cracked version makes the trial version to update for 400 years.

 

just because it's not going to time out, doesn't mean it's going to be able to grab update - ip blocking, updates overwriting the "crack" etc...

 

haha ohh really?

 

That's wishfull thinking..........

 

thieves will always be thieves... find a better lock, some thief finds a better way to break it.. it's not a new concept - the only constants are that there are honest users who pay and thieves who refuse to pay. Honesty vs dishonesty is not going to disappear... does it make stealing the software and it's update right? Only you and your conscience can decide what's "right".

 

That wasn't the issue/topic.

 

you know i'm really taking a big risk by saying this.. cause my ip is can be seen by the mods.. but as far as piracy goes you'd be surprised how often it can lead to actual sales.

for instance, take me, a person who had been using norton for a long time and HATED it. so i went around looking for a new antivirus. i heard about nod32 but i wasn't sure it was as good as some people said it was, so, being the internet savvy person i am, i went ahead and downloaded the pirated copy of nod32. While the user interface is definately clunky, there really should be the current user interface part of a toggable "advanced mode" and the default one should be simplified yet easy to use... especially when it comes to cleaning... it took me awhile to get use to clicking scan and clean instead of just scan (which by the way seems sort of ponitless). Anyway long story short i used the pirated version for longer than the trial version would've allowed me. I loved how NOD32 wasn't a resource hog, how well it detected some viruses norton left on my computer, and.. after having a bout of spyware and having to come to these forums, how deticated the people are who work for them and those on these forum that are loyal to them. I decided to go ahead and buy the software despite being a college student who really doesn't have the money to spend on software i typically can't afford. While i bought a student license to save money, i bought a license for each one of the computers i own (1 laptop i got as a grad present, one 4 year old desktop), plus one for my brother, and my parent's computer... 4 in total.

There will always be some who pirate and freeload for the hell of it... but from my experience pirates are mostly those who lack the funds to get what they otherwise want/need and without the piracy outlet they wouldn't have spent the money on 90% of what they downloaded to begin with. While most of you i'm sure see this as wrong.. them getting for free what you paid for, these same people (as they grow up and get jobs that can afford the prices of such things)... as i've seen not only in myself but in many of my friends who use to do the same thing in high school.... end up going and buying the things they truely like, while simply downloading and uninstalling the demos of the ones they don't like that much. On top of that... things like automatic updates (or lack thereof) in pirated versions are flaky at best, online multiplayer isn't an option nowadays with the simple authorization servers/cd keys that games have implemented, and patches/new versions of software are a pain in the ass to find, never mind that they're available for the pirated software WEEKS after it comes out.

Anyway while i understand what you're doing, and lately i find myself agreeing with it more and more, i want you all to understand that piracy isn't all black and white, those who 'steal' (quotes because really its copyright infridgement) and those who don't... and that every pirated version is a loss of a sale. Its not. I'm proof, and i'm not just some anomaly. You'd be surprised how many people who truely love the software they download illegally go ahead and support the company that made it by buying it. Just keep that in mind.

 

by the way i'd like to point out that i decided to update not because the updates ran out, i had the cracked trial version i believe.. so it couldn't. i simply decided that after 3 months of use or so and it detecting the a few viruses ect that it was simply time to support a good piece of software.

 

use of software to which you don't have a paid for license is not copyright infringement - it's use of software without a paid for license, which is obtaining goods/services without paying for them - ergo - theft.

Whether an illegal user later becomes a paid up licensed user or not is not the issue - did you then offer to pay for the services/software/updates and period of time that you were using the software for that was illegitimately obtained? I doubt it. Just because you are NOW paying, doesn't mean that you don't sell owe for the time you stole.

If you were to try and get away with that in the real world, an analogy might be using an office, or renting a house - not paying for several months, then beginning to pay - do you have an obligation - legal, moral or otherwise, to pay for the time you used that has not been paid for? Think about it... someone who uses software without the proper license who THEN becomes a licensed user isn't doing so for anyone's benefit than their own in my opinion - be it for ease of support, ease of upgrades or some other reason - sure you can continue to steal updates, until such times as the software stops receiving updates because it's out of date - but that's still being a thief - but when the upgrades become available, and the crack won't work, or won't allow an upgrade and it's going to be several weeks for a new crack to appear, and until that happens, you're exposed... so you paid up? And you paid for future upgrades, but neglect to mention the 'back-rent' that you owe... Doesn't that about sum it up?

 

What a pitty that you don't see anything in the money aspect that was brought up. I do understand that. And that's why I have the opinion to let it go. As long as more people are paying for it, a few 'poor' studentlike types can do whatever they like. I don't mind. And Eset shouldn't either. Or make all software as cheap as for instance Pennock Email Notifier, which goes for 5 dollars. Or mst Defrag, a great program for just 9 dollars. Or Netveda firewall, which is for free! A thing to consider. AV-proggies are mostly way too expensive. And NOD32 is no exception, alas.

 

I disagree with the idea that software should be cheap. It is priced as the developer sees fit. It's up to us to decide if we want to buy it or not.

Cracking software to use without payment to the developer is theft. Simple as that. And therefore it is ESET's right to act against this theft.

 

less expensive... Eset can't stop it anyway.

 

OK - that's enough of all this. The topic of the thread was meant to be as follows:

The topic is not the ethics or "pros and cons" of software piracy, it is just what I have quoted above. Thread closed until such time as ESET or admin might decide it should be re-opened.