Plugin Piracy Thread

[AlbertA]

I'd say for anyone with a "normal life," generally, trial periods are way too short...

Me, I would prefer to have "everything" for many months (yup, even years) and it will become obvious if I want to buy some of them and I may do that. I feel this "extended trial period" is one of the positives with cracks.

 

[FracKing]

Dude, no one's having a crack for months or years, and then deciding "yeah, I guess I've fucked the company long enough. I'm buyin' it!"

But sure there are.
I may not even start up a DAW for years but then become empassioned and discover some thing that I want to own.

I change a passion for hobbies every few months. I may be into Photoshop for 3 to 10 months then be into something else for 3 to 12 months. I prefer my "trials" to be ready when I return Sorry to be honest.

Anyone who claims to be a clean sheet in all aspects of their life is most probably a big liar...

 

[[Nathan]]

I dont think its super productive to pile on and shame people cause I know to some degree all of us have done it (tv shows, movies, games, plugins I guess). But man the justification is wild. I can never look back on my dreamcast days or ps1 days and rationalise it other than "we were kids and we got away with it so we did it". I knew it was wrong then etc.

But sure there are.
I may not even start up a DAW for years but then become empassioned and discover some thing that I want to own.

I change a passion for hobbies every few months. I may be into Photoshop for 3 to 10 months then be into something else for 3 to 12 months. I prefer my "trials" to be ready when I return Sorry to be honest.

Anyone who claims to be a clean sheet in all aspects of their life is most probably a big liar...

You can trial reaper forever, you get a win there. There's endless mixing/guitar plugins literally for free. I can get you an entire stack of drums, bass etc to make music better than 99% of people out there, its definitely a greedy choice to just pirate stuff (I'm not saying this to YOU, its a general statement imo).

There's also free photoshop alternatives that can do 96% of the stuff photoshop can do, I would just use those.
There's honestly never been a better time to get your hands on free/unhacked software across all industries

Again I know people pirate stuff from the odd tv show through to 0-day-wArEz, but I think being honest about the moral compass of doing so is the first step to really understanding the impact and being part of the solution.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

But sure there are.
I may not even start up a DAW for years but then become empassioned and discover some thing that I want to own.

I change a passion for hobbies every few months. I may be into Photoshop for 3 to 10 months then be into something else for 3 to 12 months. I prefer my "trials" to be ready when I return Sorry to be honest.

Anyone who claims to be a clean sheet in all aspects of their life is most probably a big liar...

Is this not quite a liberal use of what a trial is intended for? How long does it take to work out of the software runs to your satisfaction on your rig, and to know whether or not you want to buy it?

Softube do 3 week trials, I think I’ve seen 28 days from some companies. 2 weeks seems most common, followed by 7 days, and then some stingy bastards who do 3 days. IMO a week is plenty to make a decision in, anything more is a bonus. Less just means you have to make sure you have time to test it thoroughly (if you don’t, trial it when you have time). If you have to wait years to make a decision, you either shouldn’t demo it, or you should buy it. That’s like test driving a car (CAR ANALOGY KLAXON) and hanging onto it for a year because you don’t drive too often.

 

[maddnotez]

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Me, I would prefer to have "everything" for many months (yup, even years)

Not totally sure of where this fits in but Tonocracy went through several price adjustments, refund procedures, freeware and abandonment faster than that.

 

[FracKing]

If you can’t tell in a couple hours if something is going to be of value that’s seems odd. Did it do the thing you wanted? Does it do something that other stuff doesn’t do and you like it? If it does do something other stuff does, does it improve your workflow? Doesn’t take months to figure that out.

Some people are not familiar with "anything" they download. You have to start somewhere -- like by having a look at everything and seeing if it does anything cool you'd like to keep.

I'd say secretly everyone wants to do that, and you can still be fine if eventually you buy what you really want to keep legally. So again, for some types of users, trials are just hopelessly too short... It would be better if the plugins would count the hours of use instead of days -- I guess some software may be doing that.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Some people are not familiar with "anything" they download. You have to start somewhere -- like by having a look at everything and seeing if it does anything cool you'd like to keep.

I'd say secretly everyone wants to do that, and you can still be fine if eventually you buy what you really want to keep legally. So again, for some types of users, trials are just hopelessly too short... It would be better if the plugins would count the hours of use instead of days -- I guess some software may be doing that.

I’m struggling to wrap my head around it, honestly. I run into this with music stuff anyways, though. For me these are tools to an end, so the idea of just putzing around with them with no intent doesn’t even register.

 

[FracKing]

You can trial reaper forever, you get a win there.

I do and I feel guilty for it (even though I "never" use it) -- so I think that's an excellent tactic.

There's endless mixing/guitar plugins literally for free. I can get you an entire stack of drums, bass etc to make music better than 99% of people out there, its definitely a greedy choice to just pirate stuff (I'm not saying this to YOU, its a general statement imo).

But don't we all buy stuff we don't really need?
How can the fancy stuff be sold to me if they say, "You just dabble in it, you really don't need the fancy plugins!" Sure, other tactics can work sometimes, but wouldn't the companies rather have a chance I would get interested? (by letting me dabble with their stuff for an extended time)

Also, the longer you have something, often the more you would hate to loose it (and may one day buy it).

There's also free photoshop alternatives that can do 96% of the stuff photoshop can do, I would just use those.

Have to disagree here as I specialized in making cool actions integrating javascripts.

 

[FracKing]

I’m struggling to wrap my head around it, honestly. I run into this with music stuff anyways, though. For me these are tools to an end, so the idea of just putzing around with them with no intent doesn’t even register.

Surely you can imagine this in some part of your life? Maybe like watching a lot of shit series/TV programs to eventually find your faves?

I've been lucky to have a lot of free time in my life and wide interests. I'm also the researching type. If I get into something I kinda want to know every plugin that exists for it. It's only by using "everything" for a long time that a workflow may evolve where you use like 5 to 15 plugins and could discard the rest.

 

[[Nathan]]

Have to disagree here as I specialized in making cool actions and javascripts.

Is this lately or ages ago? Was this for personal use or commercial reasons? What kind of actions were they?

How can the fancy stuff be sold to me if they say, "You just dabble in it, you really don't need the fancy plugins!" Sure, other tactics can work sometimes, but wouldn't the companies rather have a chance I would get inetrested? (by letting me dabble with their stuff for an extended time)

Ed already said it, I want to trial a sportscar for a year... too bad.
You can youtube plenty of stuff to decide if its worth the investment. Heaps of companies also have sub plans to cover a lower cost pricepoint.

I don't think anyone besides Microsoft Windows had the gameplan of "We hope everyone pirates our software so we can sell it to them later".

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Does buying gear online for use in a gig, with the intention of returning it after the gig, fall anywhere in this discussion? This practice bugs the shit out of me because it absolutely adds cost onto products for everyone. "free returns" aren't free.

It's not actually stealing, not illegal, but if everyone did this for gear that they needed for a gig or session or two, there would be very tangible impact on hardware makers.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Surely you can imagine this in some part of your life? Maybe like watching a lot of shit series/TV programs to eventually find your faves?

I've been lucky to have a lot of free time in my life and wide interests. I'm also the researching type. If I get into something I kinda want to know every plugin that exists for it. It's only by using "everything" for a long time that a workflow may evolve where you use like 5 to 15 plugins and could discard the rest.

Ah, yes. A world where you only have to pay for stuff that turns out to be your fave. That'd be awesome (says the guy that used a huge trove of pirated Kemper profiles to do sorta that).

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

So again, for some types of users, trials are just hopelessly too short... It would be better if the plugins would count the hours of use instead of days -- I guess some software may be doing that.

You're the guy that goes into a shop and plays a guitar for 2 hours, every week, for a year. Then asks the shop owner if he'll sell it at a discount since its got so much shop wear.

 

[FracKing]

Is this lately or ages ago? Was this for personal use or commercial reasons? What kind of actions were they?

I think I had to stop this 2 or 3 years ago as I had an unlikely SSD crash (bad karma? LOL) and have since used a cheap laptop and not assembled my new PC. I made them for personal use, involving al kinds of nerdy techniques.
AFAIK, Adobe is getting rid of that javascript engine, so much of my work will be lost.. unless I can pirate an old Photoshop -- LOL. I would hope they keep one older version legally available for users like me (I have a legal sub currently). They screwed users many times, IMO -- if any company deserves pirating...

Ed already said it, I want to trial a sportscar for a year... too bad.

I still say most people could secretly agree with my view. The problem is that there is no great way of ensuring what happens...
If I was a CEO and some poor pensioned people want to dabble with my fancy plugins, I would like to let them -- but I would also want to know if they don't "take it too far." So I would start by counting hours of use -- not days. So the problem is more that many things can't be checked for...

 

[FracKing]

You're the guy that goes into a shop and plays a guitar for 2 hours, every week, for a year. Then asks the shop owner if he'll sell it at a discount since its got so much shop wear.

Funny but not even close

I think I made purchase decisions on all guitars within an hour (or two).

It's actually the ones I was allowed to lend or take home that I never purchased -- which kind of adds to one of my main points...

 

[[Nathan]]

I think I had to stop this 2 or 3 years ago as I had an unlikely SSD crash (bad karma? LOL) and have since used a cheap laptop and not assembled my new PC. I made them for personal use, involving al kinds of nerdy techniques.

I'm genuinely interested in what you were doing that required this? Were you basically just tinkering for your own amusement or was there some kind of artistic goal? If you were just coding for the sake of coding then that can be achieved elsewhere and if you were aiming for an artistic goal I wonder if there's alternate paths to get there.

I have a bunch of (paid) actions and those kind of things for efficiency and advanced blending techniques (generally used for landscape photography). Yeah I've seen they're being ported over to internal plugins.

Photoshop also does focus stacking but I find the results are hit and miss. I trialled Helicon ages ago and the results were stunning. I can't even really justify helicon but I ended up doing the sub because I used it in a few thumbnails and product shoots around here. I highly doubt any end user can tell the difference but the self satisfaction of the "artwork" is worth the money to me.
Do I need it? No, I already pay for photoshop I can get it done. Do I want it? Yes, so I shelled out for it. The option in the middle of just pirating the software to achieve something to a higher degree than I can already do it, is a dud justification.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Funny but not even close

I think I made purchase decisions on all guitars within an hour (or two).

It's actually the ones I was allowed to lend or take home that I never purchased -- which kind of adds to one of my main points...

...that an hour is plenty of time for a plugin demo?

 

[[Nathan]]

I never really talk about this stuff but if anyone knows product photography this is a 30-40 image focus stack shot on a full frame 100ml macro lens and merged in Helicon. I absolutely dont need to shoot 6k images to mostly end up as 720p thumbnails, but its my background and half the reason I do this stuff. This is unedited straight out of camera (besides the image merge), all the lighting is practical in the room balancing.

 

[FracKing]

I'm genuinely interested in what you were doing that required this? Were you basically just tinkering for your own amusement or was there some kind of artistic goal? If you were just coding for the sake of coding then that can be achieved elsewhere and if you were aiming for an artistic goal I wonder if there's alternate paths to get there.

For example, I made a lot of cool automations to not miss out on nice variations of a technique or the ability to optimally compare a tweak side by side.

Many actions would lay down a number of layer comps, for example. I could then quickly move trough them with a side button on my mouse. With another button I could clear up all the ones I didn't pick and move on. I love to nerd out on that for the fun of it and a lot of that surely would be commercially viable, but I knew people would trial it too long... -- haha! So much work involved with all of that... (getting a web shop, manuals, legal agreements, ...)

To house all those cool actions/scripts I used retouchingtoolkit.com where you can design your own button panels. That guy has not been the greatest experience though, but admittedly has suffered a lot from all the PS changes happening in latter years. As his stuff is advanced it can be entirely screwed up when they change a little something.

I'm also a Dan Margulis fan as I used to love nerding out on things.
My eyes have gotten too bad now and I should have had glasses years ago...