Thoughts on pirated software?

[SirSedric]

Maybe it's just me...

But F**K these kids pirating software and stealing from fellow producers and developers!

I'm not sure what percentage of people out there are actually paying for things like I have, but it doesn't seem to be too many. I paid for Logic, paid for Reason, paid for ALL my ReFills, all my EXS instruments (at least, the ones I didn't make myself) and actually earned the gear and software I have...

Then, these kids com along and they actually seem proud to be so lazy!
Where I come from, no one is proud of stealing.. and no one would consider themselves to be clever or smart for stealing from people just because other fuckheads offer it up to be stolen!

What ever happened to the spirit of music production and the idea that through this business we could all support each other. As a producer, I pay for software... then I make beats, artists/labels pay me for those beats... more money = more software I can buy = more of a market for the developers to continue production = more beats for production.... Right?

I'm writing this only out of frustration... maybe I'm '0ld-skoOl' to these children... I just don't get it.

How do you guys feel about this?

 

[skidflow]

Life isnt fair...therfore i don't play by the rules...therefore i steal too...paying for shit when you can get it free is not smart...at the end of the day noone cares about your good values and practices but your immediate fam...maybe. Stay up and keep doing right...lord knows somebody gotta do it...

 

[SirSedric]

paying for shit when you can get it free is not smart...

That's my point.

You can only get this stuff because someone else offers it up for the world to take.

Not because you earned it, not because you deserve it... but because someone out there doesn't understand the interwoven relationship of music software developers and producers who buy their products....

It's not a matter of "smart", it doesn't involve intelligence in any way...
It's just straight-up stealing, no bones about it....

Maybe think of it like this:

D boys out there buy that girl, chop it up and sell it... they work.
Then the fiends come and steal that shit and sell it to support their fiendishness...

Is it smart, in that case, to be the fiend?
No, because all in all, you're just the fiend... scratching for change while remaining unwilling to work for what you have and what you use to make money....

 

[LDB]

Sed the saint. We do what we gotta do around here. Most of us are at the poverty line or below. One missed pay check away from going bust. And very few of us if any make one red cent from this.

Nobody here is walking into to these company's, breaking codes and posting there software on the internet. 99.9% of the time it's there employee's, the College grad UNDER paid developers of the software that "stick it to the man". In the words of the grand imperial Master P......oohhhhhhhh it ain't my fault! If it's out there to get I'm getting it sonny. I'll spend what hard earned money I have on hardware. Too bad that can't be pirated or I'd get that on the low as well.

I guess if you saw a hundred grand laying on the side walk you'd call 911 and report it....lmao

Damn we need a middle finger icon....

P.S. I will say this. If I like the pirated software that happen to fall into my lap I will go out and purchase it. So I get a quarter of a Halo for that.

 

[Formant024]

I spend a fortune already and purchased what i needed, mostly using warez to prevent spending money on crap as im not filty rich. To me it makes common sense and overhere its not even illegal but if you're making it your profession than you have no choice, its simply an investment.

 

[Icemanbeats]

Yea, not everyone has the money.. if you're earning big then paying for software probably doesn't seem so difficult.. but if you're not........... it is....

if u can afford it and have the money to spend/waste... go ahead and buy the software. it is actually stupid tho to think morally about this sorta stuff. if developers dont like how nobody is buying their software, then they shud go ahead and not make the software.. see if any1 cares... - someone will just come along and make a free alternative

 

[LDB]

Yea, not everyone has the money.. if you're earning big then paying for software probably doesn't seem so difficult.. but if you're not........... it is....

if u can afford it and have the money to spend/waste... go ahead and buy the software. it is actually stupid tho to think morally about this sorta stuff. if developers dont like how nobody is buying their software, then they shud go ahead and not make the software.. see if any1 cares... - someone will just come along and make a free alternative

PREACH! Not to mention how much software have you tried that you eventually kicked aside? Just imagine if you had paid for it!!!!! Waves Mercury bundle is 10 grand, I have it and don't even use it now....10 freaking grand.....

 

[Fade]

I remember buying Cakewalk Pro Audio back in the day for $500, then a year later I saw the newer version online for FREE! So of course I grabbed it and from there I guess myself and others got used to just downloading software and not paying. Nowadays though it's different for me, I actually do try to buy the software when I can, or if possible, use a good, free version of a similar one.

I do agree that stealing is wrong, it's just that today's generation is growing up without a care in the world about buying programs, they're just accustomed to getting everything for free.

 

[LDB]

It's theft by receiving u good Samaritans..lmao Which is actually not stealing...it's receiving what someone else stole!

 

[Kontents]

I literally had a convo about this shit just the other day. I have bought software and learned the hard way. A year or two later they up the ante and charge for the upgrade. A bunch of shit if you ask me. I would rather spend money on tools such as mixers, keyboards, stands, mics, monitors, then on a DAW.


Its all about the hustle. If you are serious about making a career out of this from the ground up you take what you can for free before your fork out money. You are basically wasting time you could be using to learn the tools by waiting to BUY it.

 

[Chrono]

The old adage:

if you pay for it then you will utilize it to it's full capabilities

you download it, with a hundred other processors and rtas's, then the full capabilities are usually untouched.

it's different for everyone though...


I feel this theory is intact for music, movies and most everything else

 

[Sucio]

Maybe it's just me...

But F**K these kids pirating software and stealing from fellow producers and developers!

I'm not sure what percentage of people out there are actually paying for things like I have, but it doesn't seem to be too many. I paid for Logic, paid for Reason, paid for ALL my ReFills, all my EXS instruments (at least, the ones I didn't make myself) and actually earned the gear and software I have...

Then, these kids com along and they actually seem proud to be so lazy!
Where I come from, no one is proud of stealing.. and no one would consider themselves to be clever or smart for stealing from people just because other fuckheads offer it up to be stolen!

What ever happened to the spirit of music production and the idea that through this business we could all support each other. As a producer, I pay for software... then I make beats, artists/labels pay me for those beats... more money = more software I can buy = more of a market for the developers to continue production = more beats for production.... Right?

I'm writing this only out of frustration... maybe I'm '0ld-skoOl' to these children... I just don't get it.

How do you guys feel about this?

Looking for Proteus X if you have it..hit me up...

 

[dacalion]

Im having a hard time calling it stealing...if a friend of yours offers you a copy of ProTools and you take it...is that stealing? Is it stealing if I buy a Pepsi and give it to you? Same thing in my eyes. If you call that stealing then every piece of information you read on the internet is stealing.

The thought of buying EVERYTHING that you have is ridiculous, earned or not.

WEBSTER says "stealing" is taking something from someone else against thier will. Its not stealing if someone freely offers it to me nor is it stealing if I accept it.

Im sure everyone understands your point in that this does hurt us all in the long run but its the way of the world.

dac

 

[StraDivaRius]

Like Formant and Fade, I dl it to try it out and if i really use it and like it, i will buy it!

 

[skidflow]

WEBSTER says "stealing" is taking something from someone else against thier will. Its not stealing if someone freely offers it to me nor is it stealing if I accept it.

well I guess I'm not a theif...cuz I don't do things like that..

 

[SirSedric]

Looking for Proteus X if you have it..hit me up...

I'm selling an old Emu E5000 Ultra, has the Proteus X module installed.... $200 out the door. ; )


"Sed The Saint" haha...I like it, maybe when I buy my ILL4LIFE soon, that'll be my title...

Far be it from me to claim righteousness though... I aint perfect, I've done my dirt and lost my shirt....

It's just that I make digital goods... so it strikes a special chord in my life because I directly lose my income due to piracy, especially by torrent sites hosted in countries where the laws are different...so I see it a different light because I'm the faceless guy behind the scenes making stuff that feels like he's being stolen from...I should be clear, I just found out that there were over 1500 downloads of a project I worked on from one tracker alone... I'm glad that it's popular, but we've only sold like 300 on paper...total! Even considering that i only get 10% of that project, it sells for just under $30 so that's almost $4500 that I've had taken from me....

So on one hand, yeah it's all about the hustle... but to me, part of the hustle is to respect the hustle of others... and we all know that there's someone out there who makes this stuff and gets paid for it. Not all of us are some random employee of a company or some corporate lackey... some of us are just dudes like you trying to make a living....

What if someone sampled your song and used it on their song to make money without your permission?

What if that same person just straight up took your beat and made a new song from it, without crediting you? That's how I feel. I know I'm a chronic rambler, but I'm also a chronic smoker... so don't blame me for that! I'm not trying to light any fires under anyone's ass... just to speak (or write) my piece.

 

[woohff]

What if someone sampled your song and used it on their song to make money without your permission?

Isn't that something we do all the time?

 

[SirSedric]

Isn't that something we do all the time?

Naw mang.. gotta get that shit cleared if you're gonna be releasing it on a label!

 

[LDB]

Naw mang.. gotta get that shit cleared if you're gonna be releasing it on a label!

Tell that to producers like Timbo. He had been doing it his entire career til he went pop. A lot of his hip hop music has "UNCLEARED" samples in it. He has at least 3 or 4 lawsuits pending now. Some come after you, some don't.

No one sues a poor man for a million dollars. They wait to you get that stupid money before they come after you. Timbo has that kind of lose change stuffed in his pillowcase. He'll eventually settle out and pay them but it'll be so many million dollar years down the line that it'll feel like a tax write off to him.

I say "keep sticking 'em" Timbo. Very seldom is it the artist who wrote and performed the material who get the money anyway. They were signed to bullshit recording contracts and it's CORPORATE AMERICA that owns the rights to shit they didn't produce. Those are the true thieves! I don't know one soul music artist that gets royalties for there music. James Brown was the only one and they even had a hand in his pocket. Corporate America owns damn near 100% of classic soul and RnB masters.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Its the times we live in, half the world is criminal because they download pirated software/music/movies.
I personally like to be able to try software out, see if it suits my workflow, and if I find a place for it in my arsenal then I will go and support the people that made it.
Some software is extremely over priced and I will never pay for it, I will try and find a cheaper alternative instead.
The ability to try before you buy has been invaluable for me to find the right tools to actually invest in.
Some software is so over hyped to sell it, and it doesnt even suit my methods, or it will take ages to fucking figure out how to use so never give it a chance. Same with music, I download albums to see if they are worth paying money for. I like to have hard copies of albums(cd's) because hard drives only have a finite life, and they do pack up. And some of the info on album inlays is invaluable.
But again, in these days of hip hop mediocrity, it really helps to be able to try before you buy, I for one dont have money to throw away. I did enough of that when I was a teenager.

Very seldom is it the artist who wrote and performed the material who get the money anyway. They were signed to bullshit recording contracts and it's CORPORATE AMERICA that owns the rights to shit they didn't produce. Those are the true thieves! I don't know one soul music artist that gets royalties for there music. James Brown was the only one and they even had a hand in his pocket. Corporate America owns damn near 100% of classic soul and RnB masters.

Fucking word!!
The whole reason sample clearance has become so fucking expensive.