Warez crackdown...

[Mad]

Exactly my point Jodo. Plagiarism gives you a leg up in life that you would not have had, while warez changes absoluetly nothing except your enjoyment.

In line with Howedar's comment... are you sure about that?

Downloading warez of Photoshop doesn't give you the ability to do more with graphics, that you can benefit from? Someone may offer to pay for your work, or you could get other benefits. Same for 3d rendering software. (Don't tell me someone would download this stuff only for their own personal use... they're gonna show their work off!)

What about downloading Win2k or XP? Office? These won't increase your productivity over a WinME crashbox using WordPad?

Are you taking things away from other people? If you make use of the extra tools you aquire (and, that's really the point of downloading it), yes. People will then notice your improved work, detracting from others at the same skill level that have paid for their software.

If you benefit in any way from other people giving you any kind of payment for your work, then you've just benefited and prevented someone who has paid for their software to obtain that payment.

[Newtonian Fury]

Oh, and Jodo, is the gov't still lax on warez in China?

Yes it is.

As far as I know, all warez crackdowns in China are "staged" by gov't officials. You see, warez vendors can't stay afloat if they don't have connections. Every so often, the Chinese gov't would make an anti-piracy raid for the benefit of Western companies. Every warez vendor with gov't connections are notified before hand. Thus, only a handful are caught, and they're the sacrificial lambs anyway, ensuring Chinese software pirating goes on.

Even better, there are Chinese websites in the internet right now where you can download full versions of softwares. They're hard to find, and they're in Chinese. Thus, it's much harder to crack them down than English warez sites.

[Crayz9000]

When it comes to warez, I'm just going to say one thing:

Usenet.

That is all.

[Durandal]

Software pirating is not theft; it is copyright violation. The two are not the same. By downloading Photoshop, you are not depriving the owner of the license of his license. Most software companies' license agreements make it clear that, if I buy Photoshop, I own the physical medium it was transmitted on (the CD), not Photoshop itself. It's impossible practically speaking for you to steal Photoshop from Adobe. The only way you can steal anything from Adobe would be to download Photoshop's source code and delete every remaining copy of it that exists anywhere. If you took someone's Photoshop CD without permission and used his serial number, that would be stealing the compact disc and Photoshop license from the owner, but nothing else.

Adobe is giving me a license to use the software as I please, for commercial or non-profit uses. When you download a Photoshop ISO from KaZaA or whatever, the person you are downloading it from is violating Adobe's copyright by duplicating and distributing the bits without their permission, but not his actual license, unless he includes his serial number.