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?

[mechwarrior1989]

IMHO there's no need to worry about software piracy, why? Because most of the time you'll be working for a large company and as such, they pay your wages, most of the time the people who download the programs didn't have money to purchase it in the first place, so are you losing a sale? No, you're gaining a customer. It is through word of mouth that these people heard of these programs being good, it's like free advertising. The pirate realize, hey this is a good piece of software and they tell their friends. Eventurally someone without the knowledge of how to pirate will just go out and buy the software. The company doesn't lose money when someone downloads the software illegally. They don't even lose revenue. Since as I said above, most of the people who download wouldn't have bought the software in the first place since they either don't have the money, or didn't need it. But now that they do have it, they can expirament with it. Other large companies and such will still buy your software because if they were to obtain it illegally you're company could sue them and you'd still be better off than before. The software itself doesn't cost the company all that much and as such they make loads for each one they sell. Photoshop has the adobe name so it is well known, as such they can jack the price up because people recognize it as a legitamite graphics editing program. Same with macromedia and their dreamweaver, fireworks, flash, and all that stuff.