Software police

[Sawyer]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071125/software_watchdog.html

[blowback]

If I didn't dl stuff and work my a** of at home learning the software,testing software, how would I have ever got work in the industry? How would I know what to buy? I started 8 months ago at a firm and my recommendations were the reason we purchased lots of that exact same software. I know this is a touchy situation....my 2

[notamondayfan]

you cant use that as an excuse, as most programs have either demos or free versions that allow you to evaluate the product before you buy.

 

plus there are loads of free software, such as blender, so theres no excuse for startup businesses with little cash.

[Nic H]

^ Yes for a business there is no real excuse at all. You should pay for what you produce your income with. I do think alot of software licensing systems are a pain in the ass though, especially if for some reason it 'locks' you out even though you have a legitimate lisence, suppose it will take a few years for software companies to find a reasonable compromise between user friendly and 'secure'.

 

However I do find it strange that more effort isn't put into prosecuting actual software pirates rather than business? I suppose they are quiet hard to track down and even harder to get money out of?

 

Before I started working professionally whilst at uni I learnt everything on cracked software, I just couldn't afford the full or even student versions. If I hadn't done that I would be working in the same capacity now.

 

Saying that Blender etc are good enough is misled, why would you learn something inferior that rarely gets used in the industry?

 

Its a very difficult issue with many grey ares that no one is ever going to agree on

[Ernest Burden III]

Do you think these software police would help me when my software licenses become unusable due to technical issues? I have programs that aren't working right but are from companies that are so unreachable that I just give up. Also, I have lost software to dead hard-drives, and Dell-tied programs (patched installers that will only install on one Dell machine). If I own a license, I should be able to use it beyond the life of the machines it was first installed on.

 

I'm sure these guardians of virtue would be willing to ensure my rights as a license owner. Do you think they cover the legal costs of businesses they target in error? Most of their 'business' comes from former employees with a grudge who report the former employer. There have to be times when they swoop in with whatever form of search warrants they use and find a business that is, in fact, playing by the rules. Who pays for the hassles, then?

[RodT]

Surprising that I don't see mentions of intelectual property. I just look back and remember my riding a bicycle to work, past an engineering company who ended up being busted, because I couldn't afford a car because I just bought AVID Liquid. My software has always been legal, and yes many oopps with tech issues. If one considers the rational that it is ok to use cracked sw it seems only a tiny step to grabing some great renderings from someone else and placing them into your portfolio. The rational is the same, "I can't create good enough work, so, until I learn to do my work better I'll use other's work." How many people take interships fee gradis just to get their foot in the door? I say bite the bullet, forget going out, or buying that new outfit, ask for specifc gifts and rest easy at night.

[aaron-cds]

Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the $500 renderings.

 

"In countries with the highest piracy rates, the BSA has pushed governments to crack down, arguing that greater respect for intellectual-property laws would stimulate investment in their economies. In July, Chinese police who cooperated with the BSA and the FBI crushed rings that had been selling an estimated $2 billion worth of pirated Microsoft and Symantec software around the world. These steps seem to work. The percentage of software in China that was not legitimately purchased is 82 percent, but that's down from 92 percent in 2003 and 96 percent a decade ago, according to BSA-commissioned market research." - Brian Bergstein

[3dmillermeter]

"Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the $500 renderings. "

 

I don't think so. I saw this a last week:(

 

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/crs/489671396.html

[aaron-cds]

"Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the $500 renderings. "

 

I don't think so. I saw this a last week:(

 

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/crs/489671396.html

 

I could only charge $500 for renderings like those as well. They're not competition.

[creasia]

I am taking back the words I had written in this thread.

 

Just having a bad day. Arch Viz is a good trade to be in.

[jkletzien]

Having gone to great lengths to be, and maintain, a legal shop I applaud that someone is going after the less scrupulous - if they are using that software to make money.

 

I don't think it is all that black and white and I say that because...Autodesk is in the market position they are because in the early days when it was basically just AutoCAD, and MicroStation, AutoCAD could be freely copied, spread and learned where Microstation couldn't. Hence a worldwide phenomena was born- even if the software was arguably not as good.

 

I think they're right to go after scumbags, but I think Blowback's situation is all too common and the software companies know it is to their long term benefit too make their software crackable. Just an observation.

[gods418]

now im in china where everything is pirated, you want to learn any new softwares you come to china........................................................

[notamondayfan]

now im in china where everything is pirated, you want to learn any new softwares you come to china........................................................

 

why am i not amused??

[manta]

you cant use that as an excuse, as most programs have either demos or free versions that allow you to evaluate the product before you buy.

 

plus there are loads of free software, such as blender, so theres no excuse for startup businesses with little cash.

 

Its too bad 3Ds Max doesn't have a learning edition like Maya...a 30 day demo is only good for someone who already knows how to use it, and is evaluating an upgrade...you could never learn anything of value in 30 days...

[aaron-cds]

why am i not amused??

 

Their day will come.

[IC]

Max is pirated so much not just because it is popular. It is also prohibitively expensive.

I don't condone it but everyone else has drastically cut the price of their software in the last few years and report a simultaneous drop in piracy.

 

I use Lightwave which you can now buy with unlimited render nodes for under £500. No hidden costs for maintenance, radiosity rendering or animation either. If my firm hadn't paid for it, that would be well within my reach (and justification.)

£3500+ is not.

 

Still, that's a really inappropriate comment, gods418. You won't get much support for that here.

[RodT]

Its too bad 3Ds Max doesn't have a learning edition like Maya...a 30 day demo is only good for someone who already knows how to use it, and is evaluating an upgrade...you could never learn anything of value in 30 days...

lets see, 8 hours/day, 30 days, 240 hours................ and nothing of value could be garnered............... come on now...........

[Billabong]

lets see, 8 hours/day, 30 days, 240 hours................ and nothing of value could be garnered............... come on now...........

 

I think thats a lot easier when your not married and or have any children, just my 2 cents

[RodT]

Married, 4 kids, 3 grand kids here...... my dime but then i do have insomnia hehehe

[Billabong]

Married, 4 kids, 3 grand kids here...... my dime but then i do have insomnia hehehe

 

LOL, I knew that was going to come back and bite me.

 

Here is how I see it. I think if a person is trying to better their life by learning something, then I just don't see a problem with it. But I do think once it is time to start making money, then yes the individual should have legal programs. But there in lies the problem. Most people who pirate software, don't do the right thing. which is why I agree that max should have a learning edition like Maya or come down on their price one.

 

 

 

This is just how I see it

[PAWUK]

Married, 4 kids, 3 grand kids here...... my dime but then i do have insomnia hehehe

 

 

What you get time for insomnia......

[manta]

lets see, 8 hours/day, 30 days, 240 hours................ and nothing of value could be garnered............... come on now...........

 

Ummm...in the 3d world that would put you somewhere between birth and your first words...wouldn't exactly be in a position to ask for a job from someone without them laughing their heads off !!

[RodT]

Ummm...in the 3d world that would put you somewhere between birth and your first words...wouldn't exactly be in a position to ask for a job from someone without them laughing their heads off !!

Lets not loose track that we are speaking about pirated software. To expand on your concept you'd have approx $3500 worth of "billable hours" to reach the break even point. Our lowest hourly rate for labor is $17.50/hr. plus benefits. 200 billable hours. Or, as another thread has pointed out, basic renderings can be purchased for $500 each, 7 to break even.

 

In a different point of view, most of us, or our parents, have spent enormous sums of money for college, much of which we have little use for. I are speaking roughly of a month's rent, food allowence, phone, car payment and other stuff, not to mention tution, that my son, who is in college now, costs me. Ask me if I'd see more value in his buying Max and spending that month learning as much as he could rather than learn his "theory and fundimentals of golf" class, I'd do the MAX route. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. BTW, in regards to your point about the learning curve I'd have to once again be the old guy and ponder the benefits of classes like the ones that I've taken from Brian Smith at 3DAS as a much better use of money. Certainly a talented person after taking such classes could be hired sans laughter.

 

Being a land developer, rather than having vis as my primary profession, gives me the perspective also of having the temptation of using priated software. I could easily justify that because I do not plan on having vis my primary why should I pay for the software.

 

I guess I could relate it to one of my daughter in laws expenses. She pays hefty prices for her jewerly making tools. My carpenter son pays hefty prices for his tools. Neither of whom could do their work without them. Neither knew what they were doing off the block. Both consider their investments as that. MAX, VRAY, ONYX, etc are just tools of the vis trade. my 2 cents

[znotlin]

Their day will come.

 

Sadly history is replete with people who didn't get what was coming to them. I too wish there was a Pagan god of software that would rain mighty justice on the unwashed/unregistered. But I fear there is not.

[manta]

Lets not loose track that we are speaking about pirated software. To expand on your concept you'd have approx $3500 worth of "billable hours" to reach the break even point. Our lowest hourly rate for labor is $17.50/hr. plus benefits. 200 billable hours. Or, as another thread has pointed out, basic renderings can be purchased for $500 each, 7 to break even.

 

In a different point of view, most of us, or our parents, have spent enormous sums of money for college, much of which we have little use for. I are speaking roughly of a month's rent, food allowence, phone, car payment and other stuff, not to mention tution, that my son, who is in college now, costs me. Ask me if I'd see more value in his buying Max and spending that month learning as much as he could rather than learn his "theory and fundimentals of golf" class, I'd do the MAX route. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. BTW, in regards to your point about the learning curve I'd have to once again be the old guy and ponder the benefits of classes like the ones that I've taken from Brian Smith at 3DAS as a much better use of money. Certainly a talented person after taking such classes could be hired sans laughter.

 

Being a land developer, rather than having vis as my primary profession, gives me the perspective also of having the temptation of using priated software. I could easily justify that because I do not plan on having vis my primary why should I pay for the software.

 

I guess I could relate it to one of my daughter in laws expenses. She pays hefty prices for her jewerly making tools. My carpenter son pays hefty prices for his tools. Neither of whom could do their work without them. Neither knew what they were doing off the block. Both consider their investments as that. MAX, VRAY, ONYX, etc are just tools of the vis trade. my 2 cents

 

Ummm... all I was saying was wouldn't it be nice if Max had a learning edition, which is probably one of the biggest reasons for someone to download a cracked copy, just to learn how to use it...and extra classes or not, 30 days is useless when it comes to something so vast...