question: why pirate? Options

[*kryogenix*]

I'm studying Computer Science, so hopefully I can become a computer programmer. But, I'm a bit scared that I won't be able to eat.

Why?

Piracy.

I hear things about people pirating this, bragging about how they found cracks for photoshop, not fearing the legal issues and the works.

Piracy screws over the people making the product. When you download a copy of software in place of legitimately buying it, you are taking away profit of the company. Yes, I've heard the argument that "they make millions, it's ok if those greedy companies lose a few thousand dollars." You're right. Some companies don't need the extra money and should be punished for their greed *coughMicrosoftcough*, but not all companies are like this.

Why do this to Adobe? Photoshop is probably the most famous image editing program, but it's not the only one. People have told me that they pirate photoshop so that they can learn to design graphics without having to pay hundreds of dollars upfront. But you don't have to pirate software to learn how to design graphics. There are cheaper and even free alternatives to photoshop, but people still pirate.

So my question is why?

[comeupon]

I'm studying Computer Science, so hopefully I can become a computer programmer. But, I'm a bit scared that I won't be able to eat.

Why?

Piracy.

I hear things about people pirating this, bragging about how they found cracks for photoshop, not fearing the legal issues and the works.

Piracy screws over the people making the product. When you download a copy of software in place of legitimately buying it, you are taking away profit of the company. Yes, I've heard the argument that "they make millions, it's ok if those greedy companies lose a few thousand dollars." You're right. Some companies don't need the extra money and should be punished for their greed *coughMicrosoftcough*, but not all companies are like this.

Why do this to Adobe? Photoshop is probably the most famous image editing program, but it's not the only one. People have told me that they pirate photoshop so that they can learn to design graphics without having to pay hundreds of dollars upfront. But you don't have to pirate software to learn how to design graphics. There are cheaper and even free alternatives to photoshop, but people still pirate.

So my question is why?

My parents became computer programmers when we just moved here. We had little money and basically no assets. Piracy wont hurt you as much as the current depletion of computer positions. With computer programmer's salaries cut nearly in half in recent years. The truth piracy dosnt hurt anyone but the people doing it. Though my parents always bring home pirated versions on .net and visual basic. The truth is the people who start pirating things are the people who have no need too. When my mom worked at Microsoft she would recieve free software updates and hardware upgrades, these were not official disks though, but rather unofficial copies that were handed down to team leaders. It starts out as just a goodie to put on your home PC so you can work from home but quickly turns into a long chain.